Andheri Subway Flooding Mumbai Rain Aaditya Thackeray Ameet Satam Bmc

A day after rains caused the Monsoon season’s first closure of the Andheri subway, the water logging incident sparked a political slugfest Thursday, with Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Aaditya Thackeray and BJP Mumbai chief Ameet Satam taking potshots at each other.

At 7.40 am on Wednesday, the Andheri subway was shut to traffic, with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials attributed the floods to heavy spells of rain which lashed the western suburbs for an hour. Records showed that between 7 am and 8 am on Wednesday, 49 mm rain swept Andheri, while nearby areas like Versova received 69 mm.

While traffic resumed in an hour, the subway’s closure drew flak from opposition leaders across parties. “Due to a little rain, water accumulated in the Andheri subway and caused traffic jams. Now, the administration, which has woken up late, is reactivating our rainwater holding tank plan,” Aaditya Thackeray posted on social media on Thursday.

Pointing to the UBT-run civic body interventions at Hindmata and Milan subway, Thackeray questioned the ruling Mahayuti alliance’s failure to implement the holding tanks.

“It is shocking that despite being in power from the central government to now the municipal corporation administration (and even though the municipal corporation administration has been under their control for the last four years), the BJP has shut down important schemes like the rainwater holding tank,” Thackeray added.

Amid Thackeray’s allegations, Ameet Satam claimed comparing the Andheri subway incident with the Hindmata and Milan subway flooding was unfair owing to the different nature of problems.

Levying allegations of corruption against the erstwhile undivided Sena in BMC, Satam wrote in reply to Thackeray, “Relying only on holding ponds will not solve the problem. The BMC had proposed a plan involving three holding ponds and a drain to divert water to the Bhardawadi culvert, costing over Rs 500 crore. However, this plan would reduce flooding days by only 50%, and therefore does not provide a full-proof or comprehensive solution.”

“We can very well understand your anxiety over certain things being completely eliminated from BMC admn. Rather than asking about 4 years, kindly explain what u did from 1997- 2022 when the Andheri subway issue was prevalent,” Satam added.

On Wednesday, the flooding drew flak from Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad and party leader Sachin Sawant who questioned the civic body’s monsoon preparedness.