Rs 120 crore spent, but Mithi still haunts city

MMRDA and BMC are yet to complete building a retaining wall to prevent water overflowing from the nullah and into the drains a problem which caused CR services to be brought to a complete halt for nearly 4 hours yesterday

Rs 120 crore spent, but Mithi still haunts city

The Mithi river is back to haunt Mumbaikars.

Having shot to infamy after being a prominent cause of the 2005 deluge, the nullah proved that it can still disrupt normal life in the city when it brought Central Railway services to a complete halt for nearly four hours last morning.

Thane station was flooded with frustrated officegoers
who had to wait for a train for hours

BMC officials said water from the Mithi caused flooding on the tracks between Kurla and Sion after the high tide in the morning, leaving officegoers stranded for hours at stations as roads, too, were choc-a-bloc with traffic.
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Trains had stopped around 8.30 am, during the peak office hours, and services resumed properly only by noon.

This, after more than Rs 120 crore has been spent (see box) on desilting the nullah as part of a project which began five long years ago.

"Water accumulated on the tracks because the high tide and the heavy downpour caused the water level in the Mithi River to rise.

The retaining wall to prevent water from flowing back into the drains is yet to be built by the MMRDA on the stretch of the Mithi which is under its jurisdiction.
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They will also have to construct gates to control the flow of water from drains beneath the central line," said L S Vhatkar, BMC chief engineer (storm water drains).

Roads too
Vhatkar said flooding was seen on the roads in the low-lying areas of the city as well.

"The MMRDA has built a retaining wall only on 3 km out of the 6 km stretch of the nullah which falls in their jurisdiction.

They have to construct a wall of 12 km on both sides of the river. People always blame the BMC for not doing any work but there are other governing authorities also, like the MMRDA and the MSRDC, which do very little work and do not receive much flak for it," said BMC's Standing Committee Chairman Rahul Shewale

"They have done very little work on the Mithi River compared to what we have done in the stretch of 11.8 km which falls under our jurisdiction.
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But now, both the authorities are facing a financial difficulty due to which the work is not getting done," he added.

Chief Officer of Disaster Management Cell, Mahesh Narvekar said, "The water level at Mithi River was 3.57 metres in the morning against the dangerous level of 4.2 metres. The level came down to 2.5 metres in the afternoon, reducing the panic."

Resumption
Central Railway services resumed properly only after noon, when water began receding from the tracks and was pumped out. The traffic and waterlogging situation on the roads started improving around the same time.

Beautifying A nullah
In the first phase of the development work of the Mithi, which took place between March 2006, and June 2007, 8 lakh cubic cm of debris was removed.
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In the second phase, 19 lakh cubic cm has been removed so far and the desilting of the Vakola river has been completed.
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Work on the construction of roads and beautification of the river's surroundings will be undertaken once the second phase is complete.

Rs 25.76 crore was spent in the first phase and Rs 96.35 crore has been spent in the second phase till date. The total cost of the project is
Rs 300 crore.

Logjam
Parts of Grant Road, Pydhonie, Girgaum, Parel, Sion (East), Dadar (East), Bhoiwada, Antop Hill, Chembur, Bhandup, Vikhroli, Vidyavihar, Kurla-Andheri Jarimari Belt, Santacruz, Malad, Khar, Bandra, Goregaon and Santacruz had heavy waterlogging all morning because of the incessant rain. The BMC used 188 pumps to pump water out from the affected areas.

The Other Side
MMRDA's Joint Project Director Dilip Kawatkar said, "We have completed (building the retaining wall on) 3 km of the stretch and the rest will be done by the end of December. Water flowed back into the drains after the level increased in the Mithi River."

Voices

"I have to travel from Bandra to Byculla every day for work. These incessant rains have made commuting a nightmare."
Jaikishan Lalwani,u00a0 motorist

"The roads are either slippery, or broken during the monsoons. It is extremely unsafe to drive vehicles on these roads."
Govind Patil, motorist

"I had important work to complete at office today, and reached the station at 6.30 am only to be told that the trains weren't plying. I went back at 8.30 am, and finally boarded a train at 11 am."
Suresh Chavan, Kalyan

I had to wait for half an hour for a train to Thane. The train took one-and-a-half hours to cover a distance it usually covers in half an hour."
Pandit Dhayagude, Ambivali

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