The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is being put through the grind this summer. Not only is it helping to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the city, but it is also required to complete its pre-monsoon desilting of nullahs and the Mithi river by the end of next month.
Stretched for resources, the BMC is tasked with the desilting work while maintaining social distancing. The city has around 276 km of 280 major nullahs, and around 438 km of minor nullahs. The BMC needs to remove 3.62 lakh metric tonnes from all these nullahs, as well as desilt the 21-km area of the Mithi river by May 31. From the river alone, it has to remove around 1.38 lakh metric tonnes of silt.
In case of the nullahs and the river, the corporation conducts 70% of the desilting before the monsoon, 15% during it and 15% afterwards.
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Most civic departments fall under the essential services category and continue to operate, even though labour is hard to come by during the lockdown.
The storm water drain department, however, says it has enough labour force to get by. “Our labourers have a fixed contractor, and since they do this every year, they did not leave,” said a senior officer in the department. “We have enough labourers who simply have to follow social distancing while working. They will be given masks and gloves,” he said.
The BMC is also trying to undertake maximum desilting through machines this year to minimise contact. But will it complete the work on time?
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“We gave work orders on April 4 and work has already begun. Minor nullahs have to be cleaned by the local wards,” said the officer. The silt will need to be transported to designated dumping grounds outside Mumbai, and contractors’ vehicles will be issued passes so that there is no issue,” he said.