Nothing has changed in last several years, Mumbaikars’ are suffering because of BMC’s lethargic working style and nexus.
Ahead of Monsoons, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) made tall claims that the city is prepared to tackle incessant rains, but on the day of reckoning, the reality is out in the open. The first heavy showers washed away the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) claims. The BMC spent hundreds of crores to gear up for Monsoons.
Several branches of trees came down near National Park which was thrown in nallah by the locals, hence creating waterlogging.
Anurag Sathe (25) lost his life after a part of a slab fallen on him at Kalbadevi. He was rushed to the GT Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. Four other people sustained injuries after a tree collapsed on a few nearby shanties in Ghatkopar. The injured were identified as Roshan Prajapati (19), Pradeep Gajarajan Tiwar (18), Nita Gajarajan Tiwar (20) and Abhay Saleem Khan (37).
Skywalk which is one of the sahara for the commuters, to stay away from the heavy rain, is found leaking. When our editor in chief found one at Mumbai Metro and tweeted the pictures tagging Mumbai Metro, the reply from Reliance Metro was of blame game. They replied, “We are co-ordinating with the concerned officials to resolve the issue at the earliest. Thank you for your feedback. The portion of the skywalk referred to by you is under the purview of MCGM.”
The civic body’s disaster control room was flooded with complaints of water-logging and trees falling, from across the city. “We have received hundreds of complaints about water-logging in the city and suburbs. There are over 60 complaints about trees falling. Around 94 de-watering pumps have been pressed into action in the flooded areas to flush out water,” said an official from the BMC’s control room.
Trains Delayed
Central Railways
The rains also disrupted railway traffic in Mumbai as the water-logged tracks of central railway’s Main line and Harbour line hit services.
Trains were running nearly at an interval of 45 minutes. No local trains arrived at Diva, Mumbra and Kalwa stations for around 45 minutes since 7:45am, complained an official. Suburban passengers were stranded at Diva, Dombivli.
Railway officials said the problem surfaced due to snags reported at Thane and suburbs which was caused by water logging on the Mumbai stretch. Few trains couldn’t leave the Kurla car-shed also due to water logging.
The woes of commuters increased after the engine failure of Mandovi Express was reported at Dadar station. Because of this, the fast trains were being diverted to the slow line.
“Additionally, few passengers came on the tracks due to unavailability of space on platforms at Diva station which prompted railway police and RPF authorities to deploy the additional force at the station to prevent any untoward incident,” said the official.
Western Railways
At 11.18 am on Monday, every single train on the Western Railway (WR) came to a halt. The WR has been struggling with technical glitches for a while, but the rainfall led to a major fault in the overhead cables that supply power to the trains, leading to the entire system being paralysed.
Trains stopped on both slow and fast lines towards Churchgate and towards the Borivli end from Dadar. Peak hours were still on and thousands of people were stranded at railway stations and inside trains, with many forced to jump on the tracks and walk out.
Mumbaikars’ say
Commuters were seen carrying umbrellas on Tuesday as Mumbaiites welcomed the downpour. “It is such a relief that the rain gods decided to bless the city with much-needed showers. While we fear waterlogging issues, at least a drop in temperatures will be liberating,” said Archana Naik, resident of Goregaon.
IMD official
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the city would receive a spell of heavy rainfall. “The weather conditions are favorable and the city is likely to get good rainfall this week,” said an official from IMD, Mumbai.
