The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to depute ward officials to get roadside and minor storm water drains cleaned before monsoon. The Corporation failed to receive favourable response to the tenders posted four times in the past year to appoint contractors for cleaning the storm drains and transporting the silt removed by labourers from minor drains. Few norms have been relaxed for attracting bidders this time.
The BMC is keen to start desilting work before the monsoon season starts. The ward officials will hire labourers from NGOs and complete work on minor nullahs to avoid any flooding situation in the city. There are 425km of minor nullahs across 15 wards to be cleaned at an estimated cost of Rs20 crore. Though preliminary work will start from April 7, cleaning of major storm water drains in the city will start from April 1.
BMC will require 3.70 lakh people to clean minor nullahs in the city and 2.24 lakh people will be required to clean the box drains and roadside drains. Though there was no flooding during last season, the BMC is not prepared to wait for the contractors and start work with their own people and those from the NGOs.