Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 28 (ANI): Heavy monsoon downpour flooded streets and disrupted life in Mumbai on Monday.

Many commuters were stranded on the flooded streets as their vehicles broke down.

In the worst hit areas, pedestrians waded through filthy knee-deep water facing lots of difficulty in commuting.

Difficulties are there. Travelling is difficult. This is a perennial problem every year. There is water logging every year but there is no solution. Nor does Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) do anything. We have formed committees even but no solution seems to evolve, said Suresh, a resident.

For past many years monsoon rains have been playing havoc in countrys financial capital bringing about chaos in the entire region.

According to the municipal officers of the city which dreams of becoming a global financial centre, about one billion rupees are spent each year on bracing the city for the monsoon downpours. Yet rains continue to disrupt normal life.

We have incurred a huge loss. It is difficult for us to cook and sleep as the water has entered our homes. No one even comes here to see our condition, said Abdul Rehman, a resident.

The subways at Malad, Andheri, Marol, Sundar Nagar in Santa Cruz , and Gilbert Hill Road were flooded as BMC tried to clear waterlogging at Hindmata, Mahim junction, and King”’’s Circle using dewatering pumps.

Rain is on since 10:00 pm and 5.5 feet of water has accumulated here now. If it goes on raining today then the water would most probably be cleared by Tuesday evening, said Ramesh, a resident.

During the 2005 monsoon the most catastrophic the city has seen, a metre”’’s worth of rains fell in a single day.

As a result more than 300 people were drowned, smothered in landslides and panicky stampedes or electrocuted during a week of flooding of almost biblical proportions.

Others died later from diseases caught from fetid floodwater.

As the population has swollen to some 17 million people, the drainage system, largely installed around a century back by countrys British colonial rulers, has only become more clogged.

Swathes of the city sit on reclaimed land below sea level, and each year dark waters try to take back what once belonged to the Arabian Sea . (ANI)