Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Apr 29: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is struggling to finish its pre-monsoon nullah cleaning exercise across the city before May 15 deadline.

Officials from the storm water drain (SWD) department said they could finish only 20 per cent of the desilting and still have a lot to do to complete the formidable task. This delay in cleaning drains could cause water logging during the monsoon.

A senior official from the SWD department said, “There is a delay in mobilisation of machinery and resources from the contractor’s side. We are behind schedule as May 15 is the deadline and we still have to finish 70 per cent of the work,” as per The Indian Express report.

Though the BMC passed proposals of over Rs 130 crore for cleaning minor and major nullahs, the absence of local corporators, who report the administration if contractors fail to start the desilting work in their localities, seemed to be a great hurdle in finishing the process. All the corporators are busy campaigning for their party candidates due to the Lok Sabha elections.

A Shiv Sena corporator said, “Since corporators have a grassroots network in their areas and for any civic problems locals first approach them, they are crucial for door-to-door election campaigns. This has led to negligence towards civic issues.”

As per the SWD data, the city has over 2900 km of drain network comprising minor and major nullahs, arch drains, roadside open drains and closed pipe drains. While the city has 530 km of drain length, western suburbs have a network of more than 1,600 km and about 857 km in eastern suburbs.