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High tide dumps 9 tonnes of garbage for BMC to clear
Recently Marine Drive made into headlines as the Victorian and Art Deco styled buildings on its other side had made it to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. However, tides literally turned on Friday, as tonnes of garbage washed onto the promenade for the second consecutive day, making the iconic promenade look like a dump yard.
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Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said they collected around nine metric tonnes of garbage from the promenade. Almost 30 labourers were deployed by the BMC to manually clean the promenade, which attracts lakhs of tourists every day. While the labourers usually take an hour to clean the stretch, after Friday’s high tide — recorded at 4.85 metres — receded, they took two-and-a-half hours.
BMC officials said the trash quantity was unprecedentedas the garbage overflowed onto the adjoining road, thus traffic had to be shut in one lane. “The washing up of garbage an hour before the tide reached its peak height of 4.85m at 12.13pm. Later, when the water began to recede, the garbage stayed back,” said an official.
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Professor Kapil Gupta from IIT-B’s civil engineering department said that wave dynamics is complex and it is not necessary tha all the garbage that was washed ashore at Marine Drive was generated by Mumai alone. “The garbage could have originated at some place far away or some ship may have discharged it into the sea,” he said.
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BMC had to deploy more than two dozen labourers, a big compactor vehicle and two mini dumpers to clear the ugly stinking mess.
Atul Kumar from Nariman Point Churchgate Citizens Welfare Trust said that earlier, high-tide days were occasions to to visit the promenade. “It was relief after summer. But over the past two years, the sea has been throwing up garbage. On Friday, even the drains in the area got clogged due to the huge quantity of garbage” he said.
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