The annual desilting dilemma has begun for Mumbaikars—will BMC completely desilt nullahs before the monsoon or not? The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has cleaned 20 per cent of the city and suburbs’ nullahs in the past 28 days. Its target is to remove 9.58 lakh metric tonnes of silt by May 31. Civic activists have demanded the desilting of nullahs be speeded up, but like every year, officials claim they are on schedule. 

The desilting work started on March 16. The BMC will spend a total of Rs 285 crore on the desilting of nullahs and the Mithi River for two years. Of this, Rs 109 crore will be spent on major nullahs, Rs 90 crore on minor nullahs, and Rs 88 crore on Mithi River desilting. At present a total of 547 workers and officials are working on desilting. This work is going on with the help of 123 machines.