The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently completed the construction of underground water holding tanks near Hindmata, the low-lying area between Dadar TT and Parel.
After receiving flak from all corners for failing to prevent flooding, the BMC started working on a long-term solution to mitigate flooding triggered by heavy rainfall in a very short span of time.
The project is aimed at reducing the problem of waterlogging in chronic flooding spots of Hindmata, Parel, Prabhadevi, Dadar etc. The BMC was targetting to complete it by June 2021, however, due to several roadblocks including objections from the opposition BJP, the project was delayed.
"A major milestone achieved by @mybmc today. The rainwater holding tanks tor Hind Mata flood spot, that we got underway are now fully connected through micro tunnel to ensure no stagnation of water, during heavy rain at Hind Mata junction for 80 mins," Maharashtra Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray announced via Twitter.
The two underground water storage tanks- one at Pramod Mahajan Kala Udyan in Dadar and the other at St Xavier's ground in Parel- are made of concrete.
Each tank is 100 meters long, 50-meters wide, and six meters deep with a storage capacity of about 30 lakh litres of water. The project was completed at a cost of around Rs 130 crore.
According to officials, Hindmata is one of the worst-affected areas during every monsoon as it starts getting flooded much early compared to other places due to the saucer shape of the locality. Sometimes water level in areas goes up to four to five feet high, disrupting traffic as well as businesses.
As per the project, the space below the Hindmata flyover will be used to install pumps along with water-collection tanks. From the collection area, water will be pushed to both storage tanks through a newly-laid pipeline network with the help of pumps. Once high tides are over, the stored water will be pumped again to the pipeline and discharged into the sea via drains.
Thackeray also said that the BMC is working toward augmenting the holding capacity of the tank.
"While we are working on augmenting the holding capacity, Rain Water Holding Tanks are a good start to a long standing water logging issue in low lying areas."
"The surface of the massive rain water tanks will be restored to normal and it would have the earlier landscape as urban space above, while the tank remains underground. Multiple efforts for the Hind Mata junction have been put in over years, we believe this would give results," he said.
(With inputs from Dipti Singh)
