MUMBAI: It may be a part of Mumbai's heritage legacy, but the financial capital's labyrinthine underground British-era old stormwater drain network is no more efficient to deal with the heavy rainfall. As part of its maintenance, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) carried out detailed condition assessment of the 32 km network of the old British-era arch drains running across the island city.
Work on overhauling the entire drainage network in south Mumbai was initiated in 2010, however, the work has been slow. Of the 70 km of British-era drains in the city, at least 36 km are arch drains and 34 km are pipe drains, an official said. Most of these drains were checked with cameras. These century-old arch drains, made of brick masonry, have become dilapidated because of wear and tear over decades.
Most of these British-era drains in south Mumbai are in decrepit condition and require urgent repairs, rehabilitation or replacement.
The civic stormwater drain department has already prepared a report of the same, following finalisation of the report, the department will decided on which of these drains will need just repair and rehabilitation and which ones will need to be replaced or converted into RCC box drains.
"The condition assessment of 32 km network of drains has been completed. The finalisation of the report will take another month's time. We will then start work on those that need repairs and those that will need to be converted into RCC box drain. We have to figure out where modifications are needed, at many places we found obstructions, untility cables etc. As per the initial assesmment/ analysis not many of these drains need replacement as of now. Once the rehabilitation and repair work which include lining and coating is complete, the life of these drains will increase by 50 years or more," said a senior BMC official adding that strengthening of drains is very important.
In the past, weak and decrepit old arch drains have led to road cave-ins. In 2015, the Mumbai civic body replaced the collapsing British-era drains under the arterial Peddar Road to prevent any further cave-ins. This was three years after part of a road caved in at Peddar road.
In 2012, the BMC carried out a survey assessing the drain network running under Peddar Road following cave-ins that had caused major traffic disruptions then. However not much was done for the network of drains in the other parts of the island city. Then again in 2019, the BMC spent Rs 5 crore on cleaning the 70 kilometres of British-era drains from Byculla to Dadar.
This is yet another condition assessment of old drains undertaken by the BMC, following which repair work or replacement will be carried out accordingly.
