Anuj Puri, Chairman – ANAROCK Property Consultants
- Seasonal swelling, eroded mangroves a major cause of flooding
- Cleanup was supposed to start in June ’18
Despite the repeated claims of the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority (MRDPA) to make the river risk and stench-free within the next two years, the progress has been far from satisfactory.
The river continues to be the sewage disposal stream for Mumbaikars, and the clean-up act – promised to start from June 2018 onward – has yet to see the light of the day.
In what could be called a saving grace, the authorities have been successful in preventing 2005-like floods in the city, or else this laxity in the river clean-up would have been embarrassingly highlighted.
The authorities continue to pat themselves on the back for the deepening and widening of the river over the last decade at the cost of a whopping ₹1200 crore, which they claim has helped make the river ‘almost completely safe.’
The fact that it continues to be a toxic cesspool puts a big question mark on the ‘safety’