MUMBAI:
Ten years to t he date the project took off, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) big budget Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains Project (Brimstowad), which was aimed at easing Mumbai’s water-logging problems, is far from completion. It was supposed to have been completed in 2011.
The project, started after the July 26, 2005 deluge, has seen two extensions as well as massive cost escalations, of at least four times. The project includes construction of eight pumping stations, improvement of nullahs and replacement of century-old drains to increase their capacity. The poor progress of the Brimstowad project has been one of the major reasons for the massive flooding.
Under Brimstowad, a total 58 works were to be taken up at a cost of Rs1,200 crore and it was expected to be completed in 2011. However, only 26 works have been completed and 29 are in progress.
Experts and citizens activists have slammed the civic body for the delay in work. Retired chief disaster management officer IC Sisodia said, “If the project had been completed then we could have avoided flooding at several places and rain water would have receded faster. Storm water drains in the city have a capacity of only about 25-30 mm of rain water receding per hour.” He added, “The purpose of Brimstowad was to increase the capacity of these drains to 50 mm per hour but even after 10 years, it is incomplete.”
Citizen activist Nikhil Desai said, “What is the use of spending crores of public money on the project? The civic body should speed up the work, failing which there will be a repeat of such instances every time it rains.”
Defending the delay, a senior civic official from BMC, said, “There are several factors which delayed the project such as environmental clearance, rehabilitation of encroachment and nonavailability of land. We will be able to complete it before 2019 as major issues have now been resolved.”
Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas was unavailable for comment.
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