This time, however, Nature was not to blame. The reason lay buried amid the filth and grime clogging two culverts which service the estate. The culverts, 7.5-long, empty into the Vasai creek. This time, however, solid waste carelessly thrown into the nullahs, ensured that they didn't.

The resultant flooding ravaged the factories, which manufacture chemical catalysts, stationery, chemicals, footwear for export, pharmaceuticals, auto parts, industrial and household plastic items, among other things.

The Gowalis Industries Association (GIA), which represents the SSIs, says production losses from August 10 to 14 alone amounted to Rs 60 crore. About 40 per cent of the units resumed work on August 19 while the others are still in the process of re-starting operations.

Three hours after the downpour began, factory employees trying to salvage property jumped out of the windows as the water rose to chest-level. The flood-fury destroyed a concrete compound wall (2 ft thick, 7 ft high and 70 ft long), says Vishwanath Shetty of Vineeth Chemicals.

Another wall on the northern side of the industrial estate (8 ft high, 3 ft thick) was also breached, inviting water sliding down the nearby mountains into the nallah which circles the estate.

The floods also washed a Maruti car and autorickshaw into the estate and out through a culvert at the back. The rickshaw was fished out later, but the car has not been located till date.

Iyer and Prasanna, stationery printers and manufacturers, were worst hit. The entire factory, including raw material (paper, glue, building cloth, etc) worth Rs 15 lakh was destroyed.

Says R K Java of Deepnsho Industries which manufactures auto parts, ``I have lost about Rs 20 lakh worth of material which is not even insured. The rusted tractor body parts and other material soaked in water two days after the floods, speak for themselves.''

About half the SSIs at the Agarwal Industrial Estate are insured. The others are not as the factory owners raise a large portion of their capital from informal sources, explains Shetty.

GIA treasurer P S Jani, who is also the proprietor of HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research Ltd, says he has lost about Rs 25 lakh. ``The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which collects taxes from the SSIs for infrastructural development of the industrial area here, are to blame. Even today, we are deprived of basic amenities and infrastructure like drinking water, motorable roads, street lights and drainage facilities. Transport is another bane,'' says Jani. The GIA, however, has not yet approached CIDCO for redressal.

CIDCO, for its part, shrugs off the responsibility. Town Planning Officer, Lele, told Express Newsline, ``It is the builder's responsibility to provide infrastructural facilities at the time of construction as per the layout approved by us. We have suggested to the aggrieved industrialists, certain remedial measures twice in the past. If they have not implemented them, we are not to blame.''

He adds, ``Even now if they want our guidance, let them come to us directly and we will analyse their grievances and take appropriate decisions on the matter.''

CIDCO took over as the planning authority of Vasai taluka in 1990, when the State Government found the Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority inadequate, explains Hareshwar Bhagat, deputy sarpanch of the Waliv Gram Panchayat. He says only residential structures in the gaothan (rural) areas fall under its jurisdiction. Therefore, CIDCO is the appropriate authority overseeing the Agarwal Industrial Estate.