Key flooding area in Mumbai will soon be history, but not this year

Mumbai’s most chronic flooding area could soon get a breather.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has claimed that the perennial problem of waterlogging on the stretch between Hindmata at Dadar and Sardar Hotel at Kalachowkie will soon cease to exist.

Decks have been cleared for the setting up of a pumping station at the nearby Britannia outfall. Once the pumping station is set up, the flood waters can be channeled into the sea.

While plans for the pumping station were first drawn four years ago, the BMC was finding it difficult to procure the land needed to set up the pumping station.

On Thursday, following a meeting chaired by chief secretary JP Dange and attended by Bombay Port Trust (BPT) chairman Rahul Asthana, municipal commissioner Swadhin Kshatriya announced that BPT had agreed to part with some of its land, situated near the outfall, for the pumping station.

Following the announcement, a senior official from the BMC’s storm water drain department said that instructions had been issued by the higher-ups to expedite the acquisition of the land. “Officials from the two agencies will meet next month to discuss the issue,” the official said. He added that if all goes to plan, the pumping station would be operational within two years. For immediate relief, the BMC has decided to set up an additional storm water drain near Sardar hotel at Kalachowkie.

Waterlogging was witnessed in the area during heavy rains on Wednesday. On Thursday, chief secretary JP Dange and Kshatriya visited the trouble spot along with other civic officials.

Dange reportedly expressed satisfaction at the rate of recession of rainwater collection in the area. He, however, instructed civic officials to keep the drainage network unclogged.