Mumbai's civic agency floats tenders worth Rs 300 crore for nullah cleaning

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has started floating tenders to clean nullahs aiming to remove 10 per cent more silt this year at a cost of Rs 300 crore Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had instructed the civic body last year to clean nullahs to their bed level following which 117 lakh tonnes of silt or 20 per cent more than the average quantity was removed This year the BMC has asked contractors to clean nullahs till the tide levelWith the Storm Water Drains SWD Department of the BMC has started its annual process to clean nullahs before the monsoon the corporation has been floating tenders to clean major minor roadside nullahs and the Mithi river in a stepbystep manner The civic body removes on average 10 lakh tonnes of silt by May 31 every yearAccording to a former engineer working with the SWD department the corporation determines the quantity of silt to be removed based on past experiences assuming that removing around 10 lakh tonnes of siltmdashapproximately 20 cm30 cm in height yields satisfactory results to cope with the monsoon However no comprehensive study has been conductedCM Shinde had visited the nullahs in the last week of May 2023 and instructed the civic body to clean the nullahs till rock bottom The SWD department claimed to have removed 1170 lakh tonnes of silt from nullahs and rivers across the city last year till June 12 which is 20 per cent more than the targeted quantity But this year the estimated silt quantity removed may not exceed 10 per cent of the average quantity of 10 lakh tonnesField experiences indicate that the actual silt volume reaches rock bottom which is approximately three times the current target ldquoThe bottom of nullahs and rivers should not be lower than the tide level of the sea otherwise the seawater will push back into drains So we will ask contractors to remove silt up to tide level and according to our estimation the quantity may not exceed more than 10 per cent of the yearly averagerdquo said an official from the BMCThere are 309 major drains and four rivers with an approximate total length of 290 km The city has 508 small nullahs that are 605 km long There are also 475 km of 100yearold underground stormwater arch drains Apart from these there are around 2004 km of roadside gutters While 75 per cent of nullahcleaning is done before monsoon 10 per cent happens during the monsoon and 15 per cent after monsoon Premonsoon desilting of gutters nullahs and rivers begins in AprilTill now the BMC has floated tenders with an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore for Eastern Suburbs and Rs 145 crore for major and minor nullahs in the Western Suburbs The estimated cost for desilting tenders of city nullah and the Mithi River hasnrsquot yet been disclosed but it is likely that the total cost of desilting would go up to Rs 300 crore with the inclusion of gutters and the remaining nullahsYearround cleaning in slum areasThe BMC has also decided to clean nullahs around slum areas around the year A separate contractor will be appointed for cleaning of slum pockets and nullahs in their vicinity ldquoThis will help reduce choking of nullahs and ensure they are clean throughout the yearrdquo an SWM department official told midday adding that the civic officials noticed that a large amount of waste is dumped in nullahs and drains that flow around slum areasldquoWe need to keep the nullahs 100 per cent clean around the year The nullahs get choked due to floating material mainly plastics If we start proper solid waste management in slums the amount of floating material coming into nullahs will automatically reduceThese contractors will clean minor nullahs around the year If we keep minor nullahs clean it will help us maintain the flow of major nullahs the minor ones drain out into theserdquo the official said117 LakhAmount of silt removed last year in tonnes2023 MayMonth CM Shinde told BMC to dredge till bed