BMC to install iron grilles on Mumbai's major drains at about Rs 300 crore to curb dumping

Troubled by the habit of dumping garbage in drains, the Mumbai civic body has drawn up a major plan. Iron grilles will be installed on the city's major drains at an estimated cost of about Rs 300 crore. The civic body claims this will reduce the dumping of waste in drains and cut spending on drain cleaning by almost 50 per cent.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) Abhijit Bangar said this while responding to allegations by corporators. He said the project to install iron grilles had been taken up to stop garbage being thrown into drains. According to Bangar, dumping will stop and the cost of cleaning could fall by about half.

Corporators, meanwhile, targeted the administration over the actual drain-cleaning work. Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) corporator Yamini Jadhav made serious allegations against contractors. She said contractors merely build ramps to lower machines into the drains, while the real cleaning is done by labourers. Jadhav also said that despite repeated complaints from residents, the city's major drains have not been properly desilted.

BJP corporator Harish Bhandirge backed the allegations. He said that even today, many drains would be found clogged and overflowing. He also drew attention to waterlogging in some areas during Diwali and said people were still suffering from waterlogging.

Drain cleaning is carried out every year before the monsoon, yet the problem of garbage in drains persists. In slum areas in particular, even bulky waste such as sofas, cupboards and furniture is dumped into drains. This clogs them and raises the risk of waterlogging.

To check this, the civic body's stormwater drains department installed iron grilles on a trial basis in December 2023 on drains in the P&T Colony in Bandra West. Following the response to the experiment, it was decided to put grilles on other vulnerable drains near slums and chawls as well.

Mumbai has 314 major drains with a total length of 300.131 km. They include 30 in the island city, 125 in the eastern suburbs, 149 in the western suburbs and three in the Mithi river area.

The civic body's target is to install grilles on the major drains in the suburbs by May 2028. However, alongside the grille plan, the administration will also have to keep watch on the quality of the actual cleaning work and on the contractors' work.