Infra woes haunt Maximum City (Video)

City came close to shutdown twice this year; people recall 2005 nightmare

Twelve years after Mumbai faced its worst disaster created by a mixture of natural and man-made causes, the city seemed out of depths when heavy rain came visiting again on Tuesday.

Residents caught in the rain-triggered deluge still have to face the infrastructure nightmare that made the damage appear heavier.

Indeed, nothing seemed to have changed between now and July 26, 2005, when Mumbai was caught off guard in the heavy rain that dumped more water than the city could ever take.

A record 944.2 mm of torrential rain fell in a 24-hour period over its 600 square kilometre stretch, leaving 500 dead and thousands homeless in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad.

The flash floods caused damages to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, and such was the impact that it is continued to be referred to as 26/7.

The reasons for such heavy damages were too many. To begin with, it was the worst ever rain in a century. Secondly, the pressure of land in Mumbai is too much that it led to unplanned development. Thirdly, the high tide accompanying the cloudburst had clogged the century-old storm water drains.

Topping it all was the fact that the rain fell almost without a warning. There was no prediction of heavy rain on July 26 and 27. It also never occurred to the city authorities to remain prepared for a disaster of that magnitude.

A week after the deluge, there was an outbreak of water-borne diseases, while there were also a series of wall and building collapses. Transport facilities in the city were completely shut as suburban trains on the Western and Central Railways could not run for two days. The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport was closed for nearly 30 hours. Upcountry trains were either cancelled or rescheduled.

Road traffic on Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Nashik, Mumbai-Surat and Mumbai-Goa route remained paralysed.

Flood water rose up to six feet in some places in Kalina, submerging the ground and first floors of many buildings.

The city’s weak infrastructure crumbles in the wake of heavy rainfall, leaving its roads water-logged and slowing the traffic to a crawl.

Despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) carrying out its monsoon preparedness exercise, its proved ineffective due to the old drainage system. Even this year, the rain has forced a near shutdown of traffic twice. While authorities spend large sums to control floods on the Mithi river, it breaches at the slight instance of a downpour.