There is a great possibility of heavy flood going to witness in Mumbai. The reason, the existing gutter narrowed down to half instead of widening from the existing. That means the existing size of the gutter remain 1/4th only. The other problem is that some underground drainage work is undergoing. In this case also, the size of the pipe small which atleast double the existing size. Hence, BMC wasting crores of rupees on underground drainage and gutter work which need to undertake again and again without finding a solution. The best example is Sahakar Nagar 5 and Shell Colony, Chembur.. Due to narrowing the existing gutter at Sahakar Nagar 5, at rainy season, the gutter overflow and all the uncleaned water used to come inside the building and ground floor residents have to suffer. Even the entire road filled with rain water and very difficult to move. Even the big nulla cannot accommodate the water and even the pumping also failed. Near Chembur Railway station, also the existing gutter narrowed down to 1 foot width which need atleast 4 feet wide with long deep. Most of the gutter area, shopkeepers and commercial establishments encroached the space of nalla and thus obstructing the free movement.
If you look at the scenario of whole Mumbai, the same is going every where. Again and again we are going to witness a blame game by the authorities and govt. blame citizen for plastic bags and some narrow reason without admitting the real facts. The high rise buildings are coming up while the basic infrastructure like good drainage system not improved. If something is done, they try to reduce the capacity to the existing capacity to half while density of population is increasing. That means every year, BMC want to spend crores of rupees on this account without any genuine result and solving the existing problem for once and for all. We still using the infrastructure made by Britishers during the British regime, which survived centuries. The present drainage system not going to survive even a decade. Again and again we are going to witness frequent digging of roads for repair work, blockage of drainage, replacing the existing new drains etc.
Apart from this, there is lack of co-ordination between BMC and Railways. The Railway Nallahs of Harbour line and Central Line remain the same. Atleast BMC started cleaning the some gutters while Railway is sleeping. The entire railway gutters completely filled with stone, muds and in some area, the existence of gutter is not visible. The railways apathy lead to criminal negligence which need urgent action against erring officials. The BMC official and area politician blaming Railways for non-co-operation they are getting from railways side.
The govt. need to take up this issue much seriously otherwise, the future flood situation would be much disaster and uncontrollable. In the absence of systematic planning and execution, we cannot achieve better result. Sadly, in the functioning of BMC that is the missing fact now. This is the time of act before facing any disaster. Say prevention is better than cure.