Overview
- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said Mumbaikars should not blame the BMC alone for monsoon waterlogging, blaming widespread encroachments, blocked drains and misuse of footpaths and public space for worsening floods and issuing notice to the Department of Atomic Energy over land needed to widen the Mandala (Sion–Trombay) road.
- The BMC told the court it had cleared encroachments to create a 30‑foot road and had felled about 192 trees, but it said widening the road to 50 feet requires the DAE/BARC to hand over its portion of land before the work can proceed.
- Civic officials are drafting a roughly Rs 10,000‑crore detailed project report with IIT Bombay to seek NDRF aid for 300–350 chronic flood hotspots, proposing new and expanded pumping stations, automated floodgates and strengthened storm drains.
- The Maharashtra government has separately submitted a Rs 13,000‑crore plan to the Centre targeting 370 vulnerable locations and promising faster drainage, while officials and analysts note extreme short, intense rainfall plus high tides and incomplete BRIMSTOWAD works routinely overwhelm the city’s aging drainage.
- Delivery risks include contested institutional land ownership, legal challenges from cleared encroachers, past desilting fraud and public resistance to removal of stalls and parking, and the next steps to watch are the DAE’s court response and central decisions on funding and approvals.