BMC asks slum dwellers in landslide-prone areas to shift to safer locations

Indian Express

22-05-2025

With the city bracing itself for the onset of monsoon and amid ongoing pre-monsoon spell, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Thursday appealed to slum dwellers in the landslide-prone areas identified in Vikhroli and Ghatkopar west (N ward) to relocate to safer locations. Directing residents of the area to exercise caution, civic officials said people in the identified areas have also been issued notices to vacate their homes along the slopes and migrate to safer pockets.
During the course of heavy showers and strong winds in monsoons, several reports of house collapses, landslides, flooding are reported in the slums built along the hill slopes of the city, each year. While no major catastrophic incident has been reported in the past few years, in 2021, 32 people lost their lives in a series of landslides in Chembur and Vikhroli in the suburbs. As per surveys conducted by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the highest number of landslide–sensitive areas have been identified in the eastern suburbs' Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup among others.
This year, the civic body has identified landslide-prone homes in the N ward such as Vikhroli's Parksite, Varsha Nagar, Ramnagar, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, Rahul Nagar, Ganesh Nagar, Khandoba Hill. Azad Nagar, Prem Nagar, Anand Nagar among others. Issuing precautionary notices to the residents of the area to relocate to safer places, the BMC said that the responsibility of the residents continually residing here without migrating lies with the inhabitants. 'The BMC will not be responsible for any accident or loss of life or property due to a natural disaster,' said the civic body.
The slopes of these hills consist of informal settlements inhabited by Lower Income Groups (LIG) and members from marginalised communities, who continue to reside in their perilous zones owing to lack of alternate means of residence.