Rs 54 lakh penalty imposed on city’s drain cleaning contractors

MUMBAI: The BMC has imposed a penalty of Rs. 54.68 lakhs on contractors involved in cleaning the city’s drains ahead of the upcoming monsoons. This includes a penalty of Rs 2.5 lakhs which has been levied on the contractor involved in cleaning the Irla and Chamdawadi (located in Bandra ) nullahs.The penalty comes in wake of the visits made by the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to the ongoing drain cleaning sites in the city over the weekend. The maximum penalty of Rs 31.65 lakhs has been levied for the drain cleaning contractor of Mumbai city area, Rs 12.55 lakhs for the contractor involved in the eastern suburb drain cleaning works and Rs 10.48 lakh on the western suburbs contractor.Additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar said that there are many stretches which need to be desilted more than once if required. “For this the machinery needs to be on the ground and therefore in case any area work is found to be lagging action is initiated,” he said. BMC made an appeal to citizens to not litter nullahs in the city especially those where pre monsoon works have already been carried out. “Dumping of garbage from the surrounding areas occurs frequently in nullahs where silt has been removed. Due to this, the civic administration has to repeatedly remove the floating garbage from the same place. Also, even after cleaning, citizens throw garbage in the drains. More importantly, such garbage and bulky items get stuck in nullah and increase the chances of flooding during heavy rains,” said the civic body.