Mumbai is better prepared to handle disasters now: civic chief on anniversary of 2005 deluge

Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) Mumbai is better prepared to deal with any disaster than it was during the catastrophic 2005 floods, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Bhushan Gagrani said on Saturday.

As the city marked the 20th anniversary of the July 26, 2005 deluge that claimed over 450 lives, Gagrani told PTI that from upgrading the disaster management control room to widening the drainage network and installing Doppler radars, the BMC has taken multiple measures to prevent a repeat.

In the aftermath of the floods, the corporation undertook a massive exercise including the widening and deepening of 200 km of nullahs, he said.

Weather forecasting improved a lot with the installation of multiple Doppler radars and local weather stations. The BMC also updated its disaster management control rooms and started ward-level control rooms, the commissioner said.

"It helps in quick mobilisation of men and machinery. Also, the coordination with other agencies is faster and better," Gagrani said.

The Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drainage (BRIMSTOWAD) project undertaken in 2006 for overhauling the aging storm infrastructure was still incomplete, he conceded.

Mainly the works related to the Mithi river -- which had breached its banks on July 26, 2005 -- were yet to be completed, he said.

Though BRIMSTOWAD is incomplete, the works of seven Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) were in progress and six major pumping stations along with 15-16 small pumping stations are already operational, Gagrani said.

A senior BMC official said the civic body also built underground water storage tanks in low-lying areas like Hindmata for accumulation of excess rain water, and deploys hundreds of pumps to avoid waterlogging.

On July 26, 2005, it started raining heavily around 2.30 pm, and within a few hours, all the rivers and nullahs swelled, submerging roads and railway tracks. The Santacruz observatory recorded an unprecedented 994 mm of rainfall in 24 hours.

Areas such as Kurla West, LBS Marg, Sakinaka, Bandra Kurla Complex, Goregaon, Dahisar and Borivali were badly affected. Public transport including suburban local trains which are considered the lifeline of Mumbai came to a standstill.

Vilas Vaidya, former chief of BMC's disaster management cell, told PTI that the control room, then located on the ground floor of the BMC headquarters, was quite ill-equipped. The cell just had a few phone lines and wireless sets, besides two engineers and some employees.

"The real problem started from 5.30 pm onwards, when office-goers from Mantralaya (state secretariat) and private offices left for home. Everything came to a standstill. Trains were not running. Roads were waterlogged and BEST buses and other vehicles were also stuck," said Vaidya, who retired in 2011.

Things improved after that as the city got new flood response teams, an updated civic control room, rain gauges in every ward and trained staff for managing disasters, he said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was then stationed at Pune. Later, two NDRF teams were permanently stationed in Mumbai, he said.

There were further challenges after the floodwaters receded. Thousands of animals had died, and disposing of their carcasses was also a tough task.

"Initially the BMC identified a place near Mira Road for disposing of dead livestock, but due to opposition from local people, the officials were forced to find another place. Finally, dead animals were buried at Deonar dumping ground and this work went on for almost 15 days," Vaidya recalled.

Around 50,000 residential establishments were partly damaged and 2,000 were completely destroyed during the 2005 deluge, while nearly 40,000 commercial establishments and 30,000 vehicles were also damaged, as per official estimates. PTI KK KRK