Mumbai: After every big downpour, Mumbai is choked and flooded. Is it only because the municipality is ill prepared? Or is the government guilty of darker misdeeds?
Not clearing rampant construction in a city which has barely any open spaces to drain water out seems to set the stage for an impending ecological disaster.
Despite the pre-monsoon drill, the first heavy downpour led to major chaos in Mumbai. The municipal commissioner, under fire, says the larger problem lies in the unchecked urban growth.
"In the 1940s for every 7 days of rains of 75 mm, we had 1 day of flooding. Now there are so much constructions, there are less open spaces and gardens and much less space for water to drain away," said J M Pathak, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner.
Experts too are of the opinion that Mumbai has become a rain-trap with the state's builder politician nexus is grabbing every available open space.
Since 1994-2009, over a 1000 plots of public land has been released for construction.
Building rights in the suburbs have doubled and 50 per cent of the city's no-development zones have been built upon.
Hundreds of acres of mangroves have been destroyed, and massive land reclamation at Nariman Point, Bandra has taken place.
"Now even the salt-pan lands, which acted as sponges aborbing water, have been cleared for constructions," said Chandrashekhar Prabhu, Urban Planner.
Nearly 5,600 acres of salt-pan lands has been cleared for construction purposes. This has led to the Mithi River become a victim of flawed planning.
The new business district, the Bandra Kurla Complex, which was built at the delta of the river, is not just choking a natural drainage system but, every monsoon also blocks the flow of the Mumbiakars lives.