Mumbai rains: 550 mm in 48 hours was too much to handle, says BMC

Monsoon arrived late, but it came with a bang, especially for Mumbaikars. Waterlogged streets and railway tracks, bumper to bumper traffic, seen every monsoon gave Mumbaikars the Monday blues. The low lying areas such as Hindamata chowk in Dadar, Kanjurmarg and Sion experienced major waterlogging that created inconvenience for people at large.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Pravin Pardeshi claimed, "Mumbai has already witnessed a total of 85 per cent rain in last four days, which is the usual rainfall for the entire month of June."

BMC put out a tweet saying, "Mumbai, we understand it's not been an easy Monday, but it's also been a rain spell like never before - it's the highest in a decade. 550 mm average of the entire month of June has been exceeded in just last 48 hours. We are truly trying our best. We request a bit of caution and patience."

The civic body's sentiments were shared by the Central Railways as well which was bogged down with reports of heavy waterlogging in Sion and Wadala areas.

According to the BMC officials, heavy downpour in the last few days and combined with a neap tide phase has led to the city being inundated.

A neap tide phase is when there is least time difference between high and low tide. During neap tides, the gates of the pumping stations need to be shut down so that the sea water does not enter the city due to high tide.

The gates are reopened during low tide. However, as the difference between high and low tide is very less during neap tides, it is necessary to be extremely cautious while opening the gates. According to BMC, the neap tide phase will continue for the next 12 days.

Talking about the Hindmata region, which has been continuously inundated since the start of rains, Pravin Pardeshi said that the region witnessed 156 mm of rain in the last 12 hours.

"Since, it a low lying area, a road widening project is undertaken by the BMC as a solution to waterlogging. But there are 52 trees coming across the road, out of which 20 trees are proposed for re-plantation and 30 trees are to be cut down. The BMC is currently facing a legal barrier regarding the uprooting of trees and hence the work is not processing."

An FIR was filed against a Kanjurmarg-based company named Jolly Board who had its waste outlet opened in a nearby drain. Due to this, there was waterlogging on a high scale in Kanjurmarg. BMC officials inspected the site and cleaned the debris and also filing an FIR against the company.

BMC officials patted their backs and said that drainage and pipeline capacity which earlier was 25 mm per hour has now been increased to 50 mm per hour with the help of 8 pumping stations.

Talking about the coming days, BMC tweeted, "As per #IMDUpdates close to 200 mm or more rain per day is likely between July 3 and 5 which could hamper normal schedules. We will try our best to minimise discomfort and we request all to practice caution. We are just a tweet and call away Mumbai. Take care."