The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has said that the pre-monsoon cleaning work that it has initiated since last week for big nullahs, would be completed by May 31
Residents, however, are sceptical of this claim. As per the KDMC, up to 30% cleaning of big nullahs has been completed.
There are a total of 97 big nullahs in the KDMC limits that cover a distance of 95km.
The KDMC commissioner, Vijay Suryavanshi, who inspected the nullah cleaning work, said, “The work is undertaken in full swing and will be completed by May 31. We have already finished 30% of the cleaning work.”
However, with only 12 days remaining for this month to end, residents of Kalyan-Dombivli raised concerns over the efficiency of nullah cleaning work.
“All these months, there was no cleaning work undertaken and now, when it is mid-May, the civic body initiated the cleaning of nullahs. The nullahs in the city are all filled with heavy silt and waste, and cleaning them properly will take time. I doubt if the work will be done efficiently by the contractors. Monsoon is round the corner and it will rain anytime,” said Rakhi Jain, 29, a resident of Beturkarpada, Kalyan (W).
This year, the civic body had initiated the cleaning of small drains and gutters well in advance since April. This work is done by additional labourers in every ward. There are around 893km-long small drains and gutters in the city.
“The work of cleaning the small drains and gutters were initiated early in April, and we have finished around 30% of the work by now. We also expect to finish cleaning all the small drains by May end through the additional labourers. The work is being carried out without any break regularly in all wards,” said Balasaheb Chavan, deputy commissioner, KDMC.
This year, the civic body is spending ₹2.90Cr for big nullahs and ₹1.50Cr for smaller ones.
