In order to prevent flooding of the Dahisar river and other water bodies in the R Central Ward, the BMC has begun desilting of major and minor nallahs in the area as part of its pre-Monsoon preparations. Advertising In August 2017, several cars of residents along the banks of the river were swept away after heavy flooding during Monsoon. Assistant Commissioner of the ward, Ramakant Biradar, said nearly 45 per cent of desilting work of major and minor nallahs in the area has been completed and they have set May 30 as the deadline to complete all work. The east boundary of the ward extends up to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, west boundary up to Gorai, north boundary up to Devidas lane in Borivali and south boundary till Borsapada, Kandivali. Advertising Activist and BJP party worker Vikram Chogale said that Shri Krishna Nagar, Shanti Van and Abhinav Nagar are the most flood-affected areas because of the narrow width of the river as it passes ahead of Shri Nagar bridge. “Concrete walls built by the BMC on both sides of the river have started to create a bottleneck, which force water to flow above the walls during high pressure. In such case, a gabion wall becomes important,” he said. A gabion wall is a cage filled with rocks and concrete, mainly used for soil stabilisation. From the origin point of the 12-km river (near Kanheri caves), adivasis still drink water directly from the water body. A total of 5 km of the river falls inside the premises of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, popular for boating activities. “The river used to protect civilisation and several movies have been shot here. However, over the period time, the river has become so polluted that it is often referred to as a nallah,” says activist Gopal Jhaveri, a member of River March, a people’s movement towards drawing government’s attention to rivers. Interestingly, a video titled ‘Mumbai River Anthem’, featuring city’s Dahisar river along with Poisar, Oshiwara and Mithi rivers, went viral on the internet last year. However, the work of river rejuvenation on ground is yet to be implemented. Released in February last year, the video has a song sung by Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with singer Sonu Nigam. The song also features the chief minister, state Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, BMC chief Ajoy Mehta and former Mumbai police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar joining the appeal to save the rivers. Outside SNGP premises, an Effluent Treatment Plant has been set up to treat water that passes from the nearby dhobi ghat area. “A private cowshed, which houses over 2,500 animals, along the route remains a major problem since dead animal bodies and solid waste are found released from the shed,” says Jhaveri. To this, Biradar said that cowsheds had been issued notices and the process of evacuation would take about four months to complete. Dahisar MLA Manisha Chaudhary told The Indian Express, “We have been successful in building nearly five dams of Kolhapuri pattern. About 90 per cent work of building a protection wall from BMC’s jurisdiction area is complete. The tender for a sewage line is in process. The tenders for construction of two foot overbridges over sewage line are also out. The rehabilitation of people of Shanti Nagar slums has been pending because of a court matter, besides Indira Nagar and Sainath Nagar remain to be looked after.” “The work of beautification will start after resolving these issues,” said Chaudhary.

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