In a meeting with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday, WR Divisional Railway Manager Satyaprakash and CR Divisional Railway Manager J N Lal informed the Chief Minister that they had completed 95 per cent of the cleaning work and are undertaking a few precautionary measures, said the sources.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had allotted Rs 1.96 crore – Rs 70 lakh to WR and Rs 1.26 crore to CRfor the cleaning work.
Though the deadline for finishing the work is May 31, the WR claims that it would finish cleaning the drains by May 25. Satyaprakash said, “We were given the target of May 30, but I think the cleaning of nullahs will be completed by May 25.”
Another WR official added, “Till now 30 drains have been cleaned and the work on remaining 13 will soon get over.” When contacted, Lal said, “We are geared up for the monsoon. Ninety-five per cent of cleaning work has already finished. By May 31, remaining work will be finished.”
According to a Central Railway source, “Out of 68 drains, 50 have been cleaned and the remaining will be cleaned by May 31.”
As a precautionary measure, the Railways are also installing 48 pumps between Grant Road and Dadar, which is a low-lying area, to avoid water logging. More pumps will be installed in other low-lying areas which includes Masjid Bunder, Byculla, Curry Road, Matunga to Sion, Dharavi, Sandhurst Road, Wadi bunder and Chunabhatti.
Besides, the Railways are also undertaking the work of widening the drains to increase their capacity.