Use Tauktae window to make jumbo centres rain ready

Cyclone Tauktae rips off the temporary jumbo centre at BKC on Monday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

It is a temporary halt till we put our house in order, for authorities. The BMC will take at least 10 days to repair the damage Cyclone Tauktae wreaked at the city's three jumbo COVID centres. They have called a stop to new admissions at these centres - BKC, Dahisar and Mulund facilities - a report in this paper.

Details said that nearly 600 patients have been shifted to other centres from these facilities as a precautionary measure in view of this cyclone.

Now, with no new admissions, these centres have some time to get repairs done and become rain ready. This means stability checks, electricity lines being checked, and if there are leakages or torn tents, these can be given attention and any lacunae can be filled in quickly now.

It is so important that these centres are in prime condition as the rain clouds gather over Mumbai. We do not need to remind people about the huge challenges from flooding to fire hazards that the rain brings to Mumbai. These vital, life hubs have to be absolutely ready. There is no use waiting for the first rains and then deciding to act.

Repairs must be of top-notch quality. They cannot be slipshod cover-ups, which fall apart in a deluge and the issue has to be addressed once again. That would be a colossal and criminal waste of time and money. We have seen this happening in our city infrastructure. We do not want similar scenarios at these centres, today, very literally, the lifeline for a city fighting hard against a deadly adversary.

The centres must use the window that Cyclone Tauktae has given them, wisely and with great speed. Decisions cannot be delayed for inane, bureaucratic reasons. Let them facelift thoroughly and with jumbo (pun intended) jet speed.