Monsoon Malaise

Few things are as predictable as Mumbai’s monsoon: torrential rains, clogged roads, submerged railway tracks, harried commuters. Year after year, Mumbai, Pune and other parts in Maharashtra face a familiar deluge of water - and a deluge of excuses. As the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issues warnings, the state’s infrastructure wilts under pressure, unable to cope with the annual onslaught. The problem is not the accuracy or inaccuracy of these forecasts (often the butt of jokes), but the chronic inadequacy of the state’s infrastructure.

Despite Maharashtra being one of India’s wealthiest states, its urban planning and preparedness for heavy rains remain woefully inadequate. Mumbai, the financial capital, is an emblem of this paradox. The city’s drainage system, much of it built during the British era, is designed to handle 25mm of rain per hour. This might have sufficed in 1860, but it is pitifully inadequate for the reality of the 2020s, where storms can dump more than 100mm of rain in just a few hours.

In Pune, rapid urbanization has outstripped its drainage systems, causing flash floods during the monsoon. Once known for its pleasant weather, the city now faces severe waterlogging with any heavy rain, worsened by roads that quickly morph into lunar craters at the first instance of heavy showers.

A critical flaw in Maharashtra’s monsoon preparedness lies not just in infrastructure but in communication. While the state government leans heavily on IMD forecasts, it rarely takes proactive steps to directly inform the public about impending torrential rains. The reliance on the IMD’s bulletins alone - often buried in technical jargon - leaves citizens unaware of real-time conditions and disruptions.

This communication gap has dire consequences. Commuters in Mumbai, dependent on the city’s overstretched public transport system, often find themselves stranded as trains are cancelled, buses are rerouted, and streets turn into rivers.

The city’s famed suburban rail network grinds to a halt, leaving thousands scrambling for alternative routes with little advance notice.Instead of waiting for IMD alerts, the Maharashtra administration could adopt a more dynamic, real-time communication system using apps, SMS alerts, and social media to keep commuters informed of road closures, train delays, and areas to avoid.

A centralized, citizen-centric system, akin to those used in other flood-prone cities globally, could alleviate much of the chaos that grips Mumbai during the monsoon, helping people adjust their plans before the city is submerged.

Without a strategic overhaul of its urban infrastructure, the state will remain trapped in a vicious cycle of monsoon mismanagement. Maharashtra cannot control the skies, but it can control how prepared it is to face the rains that fall from them.