BMC to spend Rs 60 crores to prevent two pumping stations from choking

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) so far have spent Rs 600 crores on the construction of six pumping stations. However, the civic body will now shell out the additional Rs 60 crores to prevent two of the pumping stations from choking. The Lovegrove pumping station at Worli and Irla pumping station at Vile Parle will soon get a rake screen to prevent plastic and other garbage from choking the stations that are crucial in pumping out water from Versova, Vile Parle, Curry Road, to Byculla area.

After the 26 July 2005 flood, BMC starting maintaining drainage system by initiating the Brimstowad project of which the pumping stations were part of. At the time of high tide, floodgates are closed to prevent seawater from entering the city. These stations pump out water from the drain and release it into the sea. 

The city has six pumping stations out of which two are Irla at Vile Parle and Lovegrove at Worli. However, it is observed that many are defunctional due to choking of garbage. “The water seeps in from open drains and the garbage that flows along with it leads to choking . To solve this, BMC will install a rake screen at these stations,” said a senior officer from the Storm Water Drainage Department of BMC. 

The rake screen will cost around Rs 7 crores, but the electric and mechanical work and their maintenance will cost BMC around Rs 22 crores. The other charges and taxes will further increase the cost to Rs 33.57 crores. The rake screen at the Irla also costed the same amount. BMC spent Rs 92 crores on the Irla pumping station that was commissioned in 2010 and had spent Rs 115 crores on the Lovegrove pumping station in 2015. The cost of the rake screen is around one-third of the construction cost. 

BMC has already approved the proposal of rake screening at Irla pumping station and now the proposal for Lovegrove pumping station will be tabled in the Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday. 

The installation of rake screens though will only start after the monsoon. “We can’t do work inside nullah during the rains. So the work will start post October,” said a BMC official. However, BMC has left out four other pumping stations from installing rake screen. 

Rake Screen

Rake screens are intended for extraction of large and medium waste solids from wastewater with subsequent unloading on a transporter or into a waste bin