A 944-mm deluge could have been Mumbai’s biggest opportunity for overhaul, but two years later, despite the Government’s newfound stress on disaster preparedness, a slew of measures remain to be implemented. Never mind that the fact-finding Madhavrao Chitale Committee, appointed in August, 2005, to analyse the deluge, had suggested some of these as “priority actions”.

With no comprehensive GIS data developed for Mumbai, the sewerage and drainage maps are incorporated on the Development Plan base maps, which do not include all topographical details and area contours, the Chitale report pointed out, recommending contour maps to be developed immediately.

“A lot of ground work has been done,” says Additional Municipal Commissioner Shrikant Singh. “It’s definitely not off the agenda.” The Standing Committee of the BMC had even okayed the expenditure on contour mapping, but the initiative could not take off with the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency—the only authorised Indian agency for such work—communicating that it would be unable to undertake the project immediately, due to logistical problems and a shortage of pilots. “We have now invited tenders for a physical survey,” Singh said. “There is much more advanced technology available now than when our survey maps were prepared decades ago. So we can hope for more accurate maps.”

A year ago, at a press briefing on May 24, 2006, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, while accepting the recommendations of the Chitale report, had promised additional gated outfalls for the suburban drainage system, pumping stations and gates at Vihar-Powai “like the Singapore Marina Barrage”.

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