BMC imposes Rs 40 lakh penalty on four contractors responsible for operating four pumping stations
A day after Mumbai came to a standstill following the first spell of monsoon rains which led to waterlogging in several places, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has imposed a Rs 10 lakh penalty on each of the four contractors who were responsible for operation and maintenance of four major pumping stations located at Gandhi Market, Hindmata junction (Dadar), Yellow Gate and Chunabhatti.
These four pumping stations were set up in four major low-lying areas of the city each of which are saucer shaped and record a heavy influx of rainwater during monsoon.
'We have imposed a Rs 10 lakh penalty on each of the four contractors. The deadline for making the pumping stations operational was May 25. However, they failed to do so which led to the island city getting heavily inundated,' Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (Projects) told the Indian Express on Tuesday.
According to civic officials, at Hindmata, all the seven pumps that BMC had set up were non-operational on Monday morning. Furthermore, the officials also maintained that at Gandhi Market six pumps were non-operational. Together these pumps have a capacity to channel 3,000 cubic metres of water every hour and everyone cubic metre equates to 1,000 litres of water. In 2023, the BMC declared the Hindmata and Gandhi market areas as 'flood free' after installing these high-power pumps stating that these places will not record any waterlogging in the near future.
On Monday, after the monsoon rains made their landfall, these pumping stations didn't operate, causing serious flooding in Dadar, King's Circle, Sion and Matunga.
'The yellow gate pumping station which is located close to Masjid Bunder station was non-operational on Monday, due to which the entire railway tracks got inundated and train movement were affected in the central line. Meanwhile, at Chunabhatti no waterlogging was recorded. However, the contractor failed to complete the construction of the pumping station due to which a penalty was imposed on them,' Bangar said.
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