State lines up a special infrastructure corpus for Mumbai …………Girish Kuber MUMBAI
THE Maharashtra government is lining up a special corpus for Mumbai. The first-of-its – kind fund will help Mumbai undertake various projects, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Jairaj Phatak told ET. The modalities of creating the proposed corpus, like whether to divert funds from the states budget or create a special head under which the money will be raised, are being worked out, he said.
One of the richest local self governments in the country, with a budget of around Rs 14,000 crore, BMC is faced with the unenviable task of sprucing up Mumbais creaky infrastructure. Its a mammoth job, considering the size and scale of the city. The proposed fund will make it a bit easier, Mr Phatak said.
Mr Phatak refuted the theory that that the multiplicty of agencies running Mumbai is affecting the city management. There has been criticism that agencies like the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) clash with an autonomous body like the BMC. There has been no conflict of interest between us. On the contrary, agencies like MMRDA and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation lessen the burden on the civic administration, he said. We have day-to-day tasks like cleaning roads, drainage etc. Its not physically possible for us to undertake new responsibilities like building new roads or the Metro. Agencies like MMRDA and MSRDC help the BMC.
Mr Phatak was recently embroiled in a war of words after he compared Mumbais water-logging with Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Richmond in Canada and asked citizens to learn to live with flooding.
Mr Phatak reiterated his position and said there was nothing wrong with what he said. When I gave the example of the Netherlands, I was criticised and told I had not done the research. But there are enough cities which face flooding and are similarly located as Mumbai, he said. Waterford in Ireland and Richmond in Canada face flooding during a high tide.
It will be worthwhile to study the measures taken by these countries, he said.
Every city along the coast has a certain capacity to hold water and so does Mumbai. The city gets marooned if it faces heavy showers along with a high tide. A few years back, Amsterdam faced a similar situation. That city overcame it by building blockades along the coast to prevent water from coming in. We too are in the process of making such arrangements, the commissioner explained.
After studying various cities across the globe that are prone to flooding, Mumbais municipal commissioner said the city could learn much from the Canadian city.
Mr Phatak pointed out that it has built a series of dykes and maintained them well to ensure the impact of high tides was reduced. However, he ruled out the possibility of building a series of dykes around the island city of Mumbai.
After we complete ongoing projects like the BRIMSTOWAD (Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain) to improve drainage, we should be able to handle heavy rains and high tide on most occasions, Mr Phatak said. The citys civic body is willing to confer with authorities in Amsterdam or Richmond to come up with solutions for Mumbai, he said.