Maharashtra with high density population gets flooded almost every year in the monsoon season, people and government gets affected drastically. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari has given a suggestion to form a State Water Grid in Maharashtra to overcome the recurring crisis of floods being faced by Mumbai. The minister in a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Uddhav Thackerey, said the formation of a State Water Grid would help the government to ensure the availability of water in drought prone areas.
It is the need of the situation to form an integrated plan to handle flood situation effectively to avoid losses. Upon proper planning, the flood water, sewage, drainage on treating can be diverted to a dam. This water can be used for irrigation and industries around. This will meet the water need in the horticulture belts nearby and pipelines can be laid to irrigate the drought prone areas, as a sustainable initiative. The interlinking of flood problem, drainage management, sewage, portable water needs an integral solution. MMRDA Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority in coordination with any international consultant can get a detailed project report should work on it as the problem is not limited to the city.
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The transport minister also put forth an idea to convert the city roads to cement roads as the Tar roads does not sustain the heavy rainfall and floods. These cement road can carry a system to transport sewage and flood water. As an effort to improvise the transport department, the Minister asked State to support the water transport initiative the Mumbai Port Trust can be a country’s hub for Sea Transport and Tourism.
