Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

Mumbai-Goa highway to be ready before Ganesh Utsav One lane of the Mumbai-Goa highway will be ready before Ganesh Utsav, chief minister Ekanth Shinde has said. The Mumbai-Goa highway has been in the works for a long time. Thousands of people travel from Mumbai to Konkan for the festival. If it becomes functional by then, this journey will be much better for the travellers. "Our public works department minister Ravindra Chavan is on a visit to ensure the work is started though the highway comes under the National Highway Authority of India. Preparations have been completed. Before the Ganesh festival…

Rahul Ramugade, a 33-year-old Mumbaikar, who is paralysed waist down, is a National Para Swimmer. He has been raising the issue of mobility for the differently-abled people. Rahul can recount countless instances of exclusion and rejection from various public places and institutions as they were simply not accessible for the wheelchair-bound people. Rahul's dedication and passion for his sport are unwavering. Yet, many swimming pools across the city remain off-limits to him. The absence of ramps and other facilities required for the differently-abled swimmers, deprives him of the opportunity to train well. This is just one of the many challenges…

Amid the relentless downpour last week, Dnyaneshwar Paugul, accompanied by his daughter, Yogita, and 6-month-old granddaughter, were travelling from Mumbai city to Bhiwandi after seeking treatment for the little one at KEM hospital. As the local train made its way through the suburbs, heavy rains continued and soon the train stopped between Thakurli and Kalyan on flooded railway tracks. With no sign of the train moving, impatience and anxiety began to rise among the passengers. Some of them decided to get down and walk towards the nearest railway station. Among them were Paugul and his daughter, who held her ailing…

Monsoon is a difficult time for the residents of Hanuman Nagar, especially those residing along the banks of the Poisar river. Officially, it may be the river, but practically it is a nullah or a storm water drain, which carries household garbage and even sewage waste.   As the rains intensify, the residents brace themselves for tough times. "It can flood anytime and we may not have enough time to save our belongings, so we start preparing as rains begin. We store our clothes in bundles, so that they can be thrown quickly to our loft to save them from flood…

What do we talk about when we talk about climate change? In Mumbai, most people hark back to the 2005 deluge. Between July 26 and 27 that year, the city received 944 mm of rain in 24 hours. Many parts of the city and its suburbs were flooded; the water rose to our knees, our waists, even our necks. According to a 1992 report by the Central Water Commission, this could be considered a once-in-a-hundred-years flood. Scientists predict that with global warming the frequency of extreme climate events is likely to increase in the future. So Mumbai’s once-in-a-hundred-years flood could…

Chandivali is an upscale residential locality in Andheri East. It is isolated and connectivity to public transport is limited. The nearest railway station on the western, Andheri station, and on the central line, Ghatkopar station, are 6 km and 4 km away respectively. This makes the citizens of the area heavily dependent on roads for commuting. Unfortunately, the roads in Chandivali are one of the worst in the city. The DP road-9, Powai is an important road that connects the Chandivali Farm Road with the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road. The road is riddled with numerous potholes making it dangerous for commuters,…

More than four days after his younger brother died in a flooded sewer in Govandi in suburban Mumbai, 27-year-old Rahul Kumar was still in a hearse, headed to Gogri in Bihar’s Khagaria district, nearly 2,000 km from the financial capital, where the brothers worked as daily wage labourers.  “He did not want to enter the manhole, usko jabardasti utaara gaya (he was forcibly lowered into the sewer),” Rahul said of his brother Ramkrishna, 25, who died along with their uncle Sudhir Das, 35, on June 24. Rahul said they were construction labourers, who had worked earlier on building underground drainage…

Sturdy nets to cover manholes The BMC will now install specially designed protection nets beneath manhole covers to prevent accidents such as people falling into open manholes during floods in the city. The civic engineers have suggested a prototype made from stainless steel with better durability. The nets that are used to cover 1900 manholes at present, are made of ductile metal. The civic body is likely to complete before the next monsoon. Source: Free Press Journal Robots for sewer cleaning The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has installed sewer-cleaning robot to prevent manual scavenging in the city. The sewer tanks,…

In May, Juhu resident Delia Lobo Alva found that many trees in her neighbourhood were getting painted, in a short span of one weekend. But not with the usual white limestone and geru, the natural bug repellants as was the policy decision adopted by the garden department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) earlier. Instead, trees were coloured with bright, garish oil paints that would not come off and would affect the health of the trees. “I was shocked to see about 11 trees painted on the entire stretch. We considered the oil paint off the bark using turpentine but…

On December 9, 2022, Maharashtra’s chief minister Eknath Shinde inaugurated a Rs 1729 crore beautification drive for Mumbai to spruce up the city to international standards.  With a sizeable amount of funds, people assumed that city infrastructure would be improved with repairs and renovations. However, six months into the process, to their dismay, citizens have witnessed wall paintings, animal installations below flyovers, well-maintained road medians being redone, garish, multi-coloured lights over street lights, paver blocks on footpaths being replaced with cement blocks apart from trees being decorated with electric lights and painted with oil paints.  Cosmetic changes as beautification project…