MUMBAI: A study conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has recommended a sewer system and underground water holding ponds as measures to prevent flooding. The flood vulnerability and mitigation assessment conducted in Dadar, Lower Parel and Kurla area aimed to understand the ways to prevent flooding of railway tracks during the monsoon.
The study was undertaken by IIT Bombay after the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) approached to have a mitigation assessment to establish future preventive measures for flooding of railway tracks during monsoon that resulted in the suspension of local train services.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been asked to provide sewer systems to convey the sewage from the catchment areas resulting in no sewage flowing in the stormwater drains.
“The provision of the sewers system will require the latest data on population, topography, existing sewers and upgradation on the latest available data. No such data was available for the present study. Hence it is recommended that the study should be taken up separately,” mentions the summary of the IIT-Bombay report.
Further, the report suggests an additional holding pond for the water of the catchment area between Dadar and Parel to prevent water logging.
“The holding pond and pumping station system in its present form can only cater to about 10 percent of the catchment area contributing to the flooding of Dadar and Parel. The flooding in the railway premises is due to the discharge of flood waters from the Dadar Hindmata area. An underground holding pond at Purandare stadium is recommended as a permanent holding pond,” mentions the report.
The report also suggests additional railway side drains along the tracks in Kurla, installation of the latest rain gauges, provision of widening of existing drains and construction of new drains as measures to stop flooding on the railway tracks.
In 2021, local train services were suspended for 15 hours in June on the Central Railway network.