Sakal Times: Mumbai is vulnerable to landslides: RTI activist Between 1992-2013, as many as 260 persons lost their lives and 270 others were injured, according to Right To Information activist Anil Galgali, the founder of Athak Seva Sangh, who has sought this information under the RTI Act from the BMC. He said that a BMC survey of city, western and eastern suburbs, had revealed that over 22,483 huts in 327 hilly areas are dangerous and need to be shifted urgently. Among these, 49 spots are dangerous in Mumbai city. There were 3,986 huts in these areas, out of which 2,303 huts were shifted on an urgent basis and 1,683 would be safeguarded by constructing retaining walls. In Mumbai suburbs, 278 spots are most dangerous with total number of huts being 18,497, out of which, 8698 hutments were safeguard by retaining walls and 7,354 needed to shift from hillside on urgent basis. According to Galgali, the BMC and the Mumbai Suburban Collectorate jointly carried out a survey of hutments and submitted its findings in a report to the state Housing Ministry on April 17, 2010. As per the report, there are 327 hilly areas classified as dangerous of the 25 constituencies. Of the 22,483 huts in these areas, the authorities recommended shifting 9,657 huts on a priority basis, said Galgali. The remaining could be protected by constructing retaining walls around the hills. Galgali added that since 1995, an amount of Rs 200 crore has been spent on constructing retaining walls, but the government could not prevent natural disaster from claiming lives. Landslide at Chiragnagar-Azadnagar locality of Ghatkopar-East killed 78, injured 7 others. The landslide coincided with heavy rains in Mumbai. The landslide was the result of land erosion following heavy rains. Landslide in Sakinaka locality of Andheri-East locality killed 73 and injured 25 others. This coincided with the deluge in Mumbai that was triggered because of a cloudburst - resulting in record rainfall in a day. Mumbai recorded 944 mm of rainfall and the rains, floods, deluge killed over 450 people
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 02:44:59 +0000