The Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System is a project planned to overhaul

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

's water drainage system. The estimated budget for implementing the project is

Rs. Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

12 billion (approx. 300 million US dollars) as of August 2005. Such a high-budget project would require funds from the Central Government. Mumbai has a drainage system, which in many places, are more than 100 years old, consisting of 2,000 km of open drains, 440 km of closed drains, 186

outfall An outfall is the discharge point of a waste stream into a body of water; alternatively it may be the outlet of a river, drain or a sewer where it discharges into the sea, a lake or ocean. In the United States, industrial facilities that discha ...

s and more than 30,000 water entrances. The capacity of most of the drains is around 25 mm of rain per hour during low tide, which is exceeded routinely during the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...

season in Mumbai, which witness more than 1400 mm during June and July. The drain system works with the aid of gravity, with no pumping stations to speed up the drainage. Most of the storm water drains are also choked due to the dumping of garbage by citizens. Portions of Mumbai like

Bombay Central Mumbai Central (formerly Bombay Central, station code: MMCT) is a major railway station on the Western line, situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra in an area known by the same name. It serves as a major stop for both Local and Inter-City/Express tr ...

and

Tardeo Tardeo or Tardeo Road () is an elite residential and commercial locality of South Mumbai, from Nana Chowk to Haji Ali Junction. Tardeo is one of Asia’s most expensive residential and commercial locality and house to India’s richest man Mukesh ...

remain below sea level. Reclamation of ponds and obstructions in drains due to cables and gas pipe exacerbate the problem. History of failed drainage system in Mumbai The act of 26 July 2005. The project was conceived after major floods in Mumbai in 1985. Watson Hawksley was appointed as consultants to design the drainage system from

Sandhurst Road Sandhurst Road (station code: SNRD) is a railway station serving Dongri area of South Mumbai, India, on the Central and Harbour Lines of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It is the third stop from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. Named after ...

to Milan subway in 1989. A proposal was submitted in 1993 for a project which involved replacement of drains, setting up of pumping stations at

Worli Worli (ISO: ''Varaḷī'', �əɾ(ə)ɭiː is a locality in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other being Colaba, Bandra and Malabar Hill. The sea connects it with Bandra via the B ...

, Haji Ali and Cleaveland Bandar, construction of a five-metre wide road alongside major drains for desilting, removal of obstructions from the drains and rehabilitation of slum-dwellers . The project was not acted upon due to lack of funds till the catastrophic floods in 2005. The initial estimated cost of the project was around Rs 6 billion. Around Rs 1.43 billion was spent on the project till 1998. By 2005, the project cost had gone up to Rs 12 billion.

References

External links

Executive Summary of Environment Status Report of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
2002-03 ( PDF format) which states: "...''The present Storm Water Drainage system in the city is 70 years old and about 480 km in length. It is capable of handling rain intensity of 25 mm per hour at low tide.... One of the heavily polluted storm water drains which is known as Mithi River is responsible for polluting Mahim creek. BRIMSTOWAD is a project for the rehabilitation of city's SWD system.... The project... will cost Rs. 6.16 billion at 1992 price.''" * https://web.archive.org/web/20090310212824/http://mdmu.maharashtra.gov.in/pages/Mumbai/mumbaiplanShow.php - Government of Maharashtra's Department of Relief and Rehabilitation's "Mumbai plan" which says - "''The present capacity of the storm-water drains needs to be augmented to a higher capacity which is under serious consideration with the Government of Maharashtra/BMC.''"
"''BMC project cost mounts to Rs 1,200 crore''"
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Mid-Day ''Mid-Day'' (stylised as mid-day) is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper owned by Jagran Prakashan Limited. Editions in various languages were published in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. In 2011, the Delhi and Bangalore editions wer ...

article dated 10 July 2005 Geography of Mumbai Water in India Stormwater management Flood control