For Mumbai, All It Takes Is One Shower Of Rain To Flood The City

Every monsoon, after the first downpour many parts of Mumbai witness severe waterlogging, traffic snarls and disruption of life. Low-lying areas on the suburban railway lines are flooded and train schedules hit. Serpentine queues at bus stops add to the chaos due to the disruption of traffic. This year too, the story is no different. There was all of this not only in the city but the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region including satellite cities Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Each year, the problems hit a new high. The potholed roads, paved in the summer months before the rains, are also the reason for waterlogging, say those who frequent them. Five areas have been identified by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that are prone to waterlogging every year. These include Nana Chowk in Grant Road in South Mumbai, Hindmata in Dadar in Central Mumbai, Gandhi Market in Sion in Central Mumbai, Kalanagar Junction in Bandra in the western suburbs and Dahisar in the northern suburbs of Mumbai.

At Nana Chowk, an important intersection saw pedestrians as well as motorists dodging potholes filled with water. Vehicles were stranded and traffic was hit hard after the incessant rains lessened the visibility on the roads. Pedestrians faced the uphill task of not only avoiding the potholes but also the vehicles moving by. South Mumbai, with its ongoing construction activities for the Metro rail, was a sea of water. Roads were slippery due to the slush seeping onto the roads. The freeway connecting Vikhroli on the eastern side of Mumbai to CST in South Mumbai was flooded in parts, particularly at the entry near Vikhroli.

Schoolchildren, who use the roads in flood-prone areas of the city, have been exempted from physical school on days of heavy rains. For Rama Bhoir, taking her children to school is a tough task. They are all wet before they reach the school. With affordability being a tough issue, two children share the umbrella, while Rama walks in the driving rain without an umbrella. “My child has missed school the last week. We live in the Sion-Koliwada area where there is too much water. This week the children have exams and rain is still on,” says Rama.

The downpour, which has been on since the past week, has forced the BMC and the Mumbai Police to tweet updates with advisories for the citizens to stay at home if it rains heavily. The civic body has also been posting updates on the high tide timings and the expected rainfall. This is a practice being followed by the civic body since the Mumbai floods of 2005.

The Andheri subway was shut down three times last week after nearly two feet of water filled up the subway due to incessant rainfall. This subway, a connector between the eastern and western suburbs of Andheri, gets flooded every year. Disruption of traffic and serpentine queues are common during the rains. The ongoing work of the Metro rail at various points in Andheri has seen the arterial roads choked with vehicles. The plush localities of Juhu and Lokhandwala, home to many Bollywood stars, are also flooded due to the rains.

“The concreting of roads is also a culprit,” says a BMC official. “The small water outlets at the side of the roads have been closed when the concreting work was done. There is no outlet for the rainwater to go. Ward officers who should have monitored the concreting work did not do their jobs. The continued waterlogging is the result,” says the official.

Since the elections of the BMC is yet to be held, there is no elected body to monitor the work of the civic administration, says Gurunath Swami, a resident of Sion-Koliwada, another spot that is waterlogged.

The city bus services operated by BEST also see a diversion in the key bus routes in many areas due to waterlogging. Mudslides are very common, as was seen last week in Suryanagar in Vikhroli, located in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. Residents were asked to vacate their houses and move to safer places in this area. For the common man who needs to use road transport, there are not many options due to the diversion of bus routes.

In neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai too, the waterlogging situation is similar to that of Mumbai. Here too, the ongoing construction activities of the Metro rail have made road travel a daunting task. The civic body officials remain incommunicado as problems pile up due to the rains.