As incessant rains and gusty winds lashed Mumbai on Thursday, the city came to a standstill because of water logging. All the major low-lying areas of the city went under water and traffic was stalled for hours.
King's Circle, Hindmata, Dadar TT, Sion Road and Andheri Subway went under water, causing the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking to divert 92 bus routes.
The leaders of the opposition, both in the legislature and the civic body have held the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) accountable for the apalling situation of the city.
Prior to the monsoon, BMC chief Iqbal Singh Chahal had said that the civic body had completed 113 per cent of its pre-monsoon nullah-cleaning target.
"Whatever the BMC administration claimed is an eyewash. Had it really carried out 113 per cent desilting for real, would the city have been brought to a standstill on Thursday?" asked Ravi Raja, leader of the opposition in the BMC and F-north corporator.
Major areas of King's Circle, my ward, went under water. At Hindmata, water did not recede for more than three hours," Raja claimed.
When civic authorities had made the 113 per cent claim, Raja had negated it. "The claims made by the BMC were false, contractors met the target by mixing debris in the garbage dumped from the sewer. They should be held responsible for sending public money down the drain," said the Congress leader.
In the western suburbs of Kandivli and Borivli, there was severe waterlogging. The Poisar bridge and its adjoining areas are being dug up, to build a flyover. The Poisar river has now turned into a nullah because of the massive amount of debris dumped into it for laying the foundation of the bridge.
"When the wall of the proposed bridge has been constructed before the river has been widened, waterlogging is bound to happen. Also, instead of cleaning the nullah, BMC has started to dig the river and this too is certain to cause waterlogging," said the BJP MLA of Charkop constituency, Yogesh Sagar.
For the last one year, Sagar has been instrumental in following up the problem of waterlogging in his constituency. Prior to the monsoon this year, he had brought engineers from the stormwater and hydraulic engineering departments to look into the matter.
"Mumbai is an international city and instead of upgrading it, contractors are using public money for profiteering. The flooding at Kandivli and Borivli clearly shows where we stand in terms of flood management" Sagar observed.
