The water inside Churchgate station remained stagnant for a very long time on Thursday
Over and above the fact that South Mumbai is experiencing unusual waterlogging this year, the Churchgate station got flooded on Thursday with water entering the tracks and even the heritage building. While underground Metro work has been going on for a while now, railway officials and transport experts feel that the Coastal Road work might be leading to the current situation.
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Requesting anonymity, a senior permanent way maintainer said, "The tracks were waterlogged till the buffer ends. This has not happened in recent memory despite heavy rainfall." "It took some time for the water to recede, but this indicates that the water egress system has been disturbed," he added.
Also Read: Mumbai Rains: BMC chiefs change, excuse for city's flooding doesn't
'Water was stagnant'
Water had entered the Churchgate station building and head office as well. "Pumps are placed at strategic locations, but this time, the water was stagnant for a long time. Also, South Mumbai has never experienced waterlogging of this scale," said a senior railway official.
Experts suspect the Coastal Road work to be the reason behind this.
Transport expert Ajit Shenoy said, "Water moved into the Chowpatty beach and sea face as well. This happened for the first time. It needs to be found out whether it's due to the landfilling work for the Coastal Road, which started this year."
Mumbai Vikas Samiti convenor, Nandkumar Salvi, also BMC's former chief hydraulic engineer and ex-member of Chitale Committee, said that it was not proper to jump to conclusions immediately, but the situation needed to be investigated from all angles, including amount of rainfall, high tide and other aspects.
Also Read: Mumbai first in the list of top ten rainiest cities in last 24 hours
'It needs to be found out'
"There could be multiple reasons for the South Mumbai flooding this year and it's not right to jump to conclusions. Work on Mumbai Metro has been going on for a while without a glitch. The Coastal Road project has started with some landfilling work. There are direct water outfalls along the Nariman Point stretch, and I am not aware if they have been tampered with. It needs to be investigated what went wrong," he added.
Speaking to mid-day, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, "I do not agree. But still we will examine this. It is not appropriate to make such statements without a scientific study and evidence."
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