FIR against contractor for Juhu flooding

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been fuming over the flooding of Juhu and the surrounding areas during the September 19 downpour. Taking serious note of this, the civic body has decided to lodge a complaint against the contractor who maintains the Irla pumping station. 

On Monday, BMC officials went to Juhu police station to lodge an FIR against the contractor, but police sent them back only by recording their statement claiming it to be a civil matter. Senior police inspector Sunil Ghosalkar said, “We have received a complaint from the BMC. But no FIR has been lodged. We are investigating the matter.”

On September 19, when the city received 303 mm of incessant rains, areas like Juhu, JVPD, Milan subway and some parts of Vile Parle and Santa Cruz, which come under the influence of the Irla pumping station, were flooded. This raised questions about the efficiency of the pumping station.

According to civic officials, it was due to the negligence of the contractor, who has been maintaining the Irla pumping station. Despite repeated reminders from the BMC, the contractor failed to stock enough diesel to run all eight pumps of the pumping station. This led to the closure of pumps for more than three hours, due to which the surrounding areas were flooded. A senior official from the storm water drains department said, “All eight pumps of pumping station were shut down from 9.50 pm to 1.11 am on September 19 due to the non-availability of diesel. We had received a high alert on September 15 that there will be heavy rains on September 19. Accordingly, we had instructed the contractor to make provisions for diesel so as to avoid any problem.” Even though the diesel was procured by 10.30 pm, it took lot of time to start the pumps.