Mumbai News: BMC Completes Only 56% Drain Desilting, Just 29% On Mithi River Ahead Of Monsoon; Citizens Slam Delay, Uncollected Silt

Mumbai: With less than a month remaining for completing it's pre-monsoon desilting of drains, the as of May 5 have completed 56% of overall work, while only 29% desilting of Mithi river is completed.

The 22 km long Mithi river is the biggest and most storm crucial storm water drains (SWD) in Mumbai. The desilting of major and minor drains in the city, including road side drains began in March end, while work for Mithi river commenced in April.

As per SWD department progress report of May 5, out of the total pre-monsoon desilting of City area, only 43.66% is completed, while in western and eastern suburbs, 54.96% and 61.27% desilting is completed so far. While, data for Mithi river is worrying as mere only 29.6% desilting is completed.

BMC faces flak as dry silt from desilting work lies uncollected across Mumbai roads

Moreover, the citizens have started complaining of the ugly scenes of dry silt piling up roadsides across the city, causing inconvenience to the pedestrians as well as vehicles. As per BMC rules, the silt removed from the minor drains, has to be collected within 48 hours. However, dry silt remains uncollected for days.

The Govandi Citizens Welfare Association has been raising the issue via X from several days, however they have hardly recieved any respite. The scene outside the BMC headquarters near CSMT is not different, where motorists and pedestrians are waiting for the silt be removed.

Poonam D, resident of Tilak Nagar, Chembur said, "The silt from the roadside gutter is lying across the colony from some days. Everyone has to find ways to walk and motorists are forced to park vehicles unevenly. If this silt is not removed before pre-monsoon rains, it will mix in the roadside drains all again."

Chief Engineer (SWD) Shridhar Choudhary said, "The silt on the road is of minor drains and the work is carried at the ward level. If there are pre-monsoon showers, the removed silt can go back to drains. We will issue a reminder to the wards to collect the dry silt."

Meanwhile, In order to enhance monitoring, transparency and efficiency in drain desilting operations across Mumbai, the BMC has set up a War Room at his headquarter. The War Room uses Artificial Intelligence for tracking progress at ward and zone level.

For the coastal city like Mumbai, desilting of drains is the most crucial pre-monsoon activity undertaken by the BMC to allow rainwater to drain faster and prevent waterlogging as much as possible.

Mumbai has total 283 major drains (including rivers), having total length of 274.56 kms. While, the city has total 1488 minor drains having total length of 637.305 kms. Mumbai also has 4211 roadside drains, with total length of 2181.4 kms.