Mumbai, India, 19 May 2007: A 944-mm deluge could have been Mumbai’s biggest opportunity for overhaul, but two years later, despite the government’s newfound stress on disaster preparedness, a slew of measures remain to be implemented. Never mind that the fact-finding Madhavrao Chitale Committee, appointed in August 2005 to analyse the deluge, had suggested some of these as “priority actions” to be put in place urgently.
Contour Mapping: With no comprehensive GIS data developed for Mumbai, the sewerage and drainage maps are incorporated on the Development Plan base maps, which do not include all topographical details and area contours, the Chitale report pointed out, recommending contour maps to be developed immediately.
“A lot of ground work has been done on this already,” says Additional Municipal Commissioner Shrikant Singh. “It’s definitely not off the agenda.” The Standing Committee of the BMC had even okayed the expenditure on contour mapping, but the initiative could not take off with the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency—the only authorised Indian agency for such work—communicating that it would be unable to undertake the project immediately, due to logistical problems and a shortage of pilots.
“We have now invited tenders for a physical survey,” Singh said. “There is much more advanced technology available now than when our survey maps were prepared decades ago. So we can hope for more accurate maps. Also, we are not giving up entirely on the photogrammetry plan-accurate maps are the basis of planning, useful not just for contour mapping but also for all GIS applications.”
