What comes in tandem with heavy rains is the set of excuses that BMC churns out year after year for flooding in the city. The excuses are commonplace — too much rain in just one day, there was water logging during high tide, the drainage system can sustain a certain level of rainfall, the city is saucer-shaped and so it holds a lot of water.

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However, a cursory glance at the figures shows that in the past decade there have been one or two days every year when the city received 10% of the total rainfall in a single day.

The city, on an average, receives 2260 mm rain in the four months of the rainy season. As per Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) data, in the past 10 years, except 2012 and 2016, there have been one or two days in every year's monsoon period when the amount of rainfall on a single day exceeds 10% of the total average rainfall, i.e., around 220 mm. Experts think, now the time has come when BMC should use modern technology and improve infrastructure.

But bureaucrats and politicians running a body with Rs 30,000-crore budget have doled out nothing but empty promises and excuses.

"Since there are some areas which are demographically like a saucer, flooding is bound to take place. However, we have made arrangements to ensure that the water recedes quickly. Water has receded faster," said Additional Commissioner of the BMC Ashwini Joshi.

Nikhil Desai, an activist and engineer, said: "Heavy rains, high tide and low-lying areas are facts that will not change. BMC has to improve the drainage system which can work in heavy rains and at the time of high tide."

Earlier, the civic body had stated that in low-lying areas like King's Circle, the issue of flooding cannot be resolved as there is no place to lay a bigger drainage pipeline due to the presence of a huge pipeline in the area. "Why don't they use technology like micro-tunneling? There are so many options, but BMC officers don't want to take an initiative," explained Desai.

"I stay in Khar and today one side of the road was waterlogged and on the other side, the gutter was empty. So, it is not only related to heavy rain or high tide but the poor infrastructure of the city," said Zoru Bathena, activist and environmentalist. "The infrastructure of the city is crumbling. Roads are in bad condition and bridges are collapsing. The problem is year-long which only gets exposed during the monsoon," he added and suggested that instead of wasting Rs 12,000 crore on a 10-km coastal road, BMC should improve the road network as per its own Development Plan.

—Inputs from Ashutosh M Shukla