Mumbai: BMC to widen drains in Andheri subway to avoid waterlogging

Waterlogging disrupted traffic at Andheri subway following heavy showers on Tuesday morning. With an objective to give relief to the flooding spot, the BMC has undertaken a project of widening drains at Andheri (West) at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore, which will take 18 months to complete.

After the deluge in 2005, the BMC undertook the construction of pumping stations at eight locations to prevent flooding. Accordingly, the pumping station at Mogra nullah would have provided relief to areas like Andheri, Versova, Jogeshwari, and Oshiwara which witness water logging during monsoon. However, the pumping station remainson paper.

Meanwhile, in 2019, the BMC officials went ahead with micro planning to deal with flooding at each chronic spot. Accordingly, the measures taken at severe flooding spots like Hindmata at Dadar and Gandhi Market in Sion brought relief for the people this year, claim the civic officials. The construction of an underground water tank is underway to prevent flooding at the Milan Subway. While the work on another flooding spot at Andheri subway is expected to start after the monsoon.

After the monsoon began this year, the BMC had to close the Andheri subway for vehicular movement on several occasions due to water logging. “We have installed six de-watering pumps at the spot, but the slope gradient is higher at the eastern side while the nullah is close to the subway. The stormwater drain on the western side is not enough to take more quantity of water at a time. So with each rain, the subway gets flooded,” said an official from BMC's storm water drain department.