The Mithi River is the largest river in the city and flows a distance of 17.8 km through the suburbs before emptying into the Arabian Sea.

Every year, the BMC carries out sediment cleaning tasks in BombayDrains, including that of the Mithi River, in a bid to remove silt, dirt and sediment that are naturally deposited in water bodies. The removal of sediment improves the water flow and carrying capacity of the river, preventing waterlogging during the monsoon season. It was after the July 26, 2005 deluge that raised alarm bells about the intense flooding of the Mithi river, the BMC launched the annual desilting exercise in the water body, as per the recommendations of the Chitale committee.

For the current year 2025-2026, the BMC has issued a work order of Rs 90 crore to three contractors (Tridev Infraprojects, JRS Infraprojects and Bhumika Transport) to carry out sediment clearance across the entire 17.9 km stretch of the river in three separate packages. The work order was awarded in April 2025 to carry out desilting over a period of one year.

The Mithi River is the largest river in the city and flows a distance of 17.8 km through the suburbs before emptying into the Arabian Sea. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Between April 2025 and July 2025, data shows that 9,930 trucks were deployed across the ten stretches of the Mithi river to remove over 1.68 lakh metric tonnes of silt and other materials in the desilting exercise.

However, sediment extraction work at Mithi has since suffered a significant impact.

Between August 2025 and January 31, the BMC mined “zero” silt in eight of the ten stretches of the Mithi river. These include the stretches between upstream Airport culvert to Bamandayapada Bridge, Bamandayapada Bridge to Filterpada at Powai, Mahim Causeway to Sion Bandra Link Road Bridge, Sion Bandra Road Bridge to BKC Connector Bridge, Tail Canal behind the Maharashtra Nature Park to BKC Connector Bridge on the eastern bank, Tail Canal from Dharavi Outfall to Mithi River on Sion Bandra Link Road, from Kurla to BKC connector bridge and the final stretch from Vakola Bridge to Mithi river.

Data from public records of the Storm Water Drainage department showed that during this period, only two stretches (Teacher’s Colony to Kurla Kalina Bridge and Kurla Kalina Bridge to Airport Culvert) were cleared of sediment with only 523 trucks deployed and 10,530 metric tonnes of sediment removed in the six months between August 2025 and January 2026.

Incidentally, it was in August 2025 that floods along the Mithi river raised concerns and led to the evacuation of residents of the Kranti Nagar slum belt after the waters of the Mithi river almost crossed the ‘danger levels’, following the torrential downpour between August 18 and 19.

BMC response

When contacted about the delay, senior BMC officials said work along Mithi river had been affected due to involvement of contractors in ED’s ongoing probe into Mithi river as well as blacklisting by the BMC itself.

Of the three contractors nabbed for sediment removal, two have been involved in criminal cases, while Bhumika Transport has been blacklisted for shoddy work in the city’s M/East and M/West belt of districts.

“While the work was awarded to three contractors, one of them was blacklisted, while two others were named in criminal cases. In light of these developments, we sought to appoint a new emergency contractor to replace the contractors theses. However, due to the ongoing Mithi investigation, no new contractor was willing to touch the river desilting work. Following this, we went ahead once again with the existing contractors to ensure that the desilting work is not However, soon, the top and middle management of these companies were arrested and it started having an impact on the desilting work before and during the monsoon,” said a senior BMC official.

For its part, the BMC maintains that only 10 per cent of sediment extraction work is carried out in the post-monsoon period.

“As per the contract, 80 per cent of the sediment extraction is carried out before the monsoon, while 10 per cent is carried out during the monsoon and 10 per cent after the monsoon. The sediment extraction in the post-monsoon work is carried out only intermittently, especially focusing on floating household waste. Due to this and the absence of contractors, the quantity of sediment extracted is less,” the official added.

BMC data shows that even as the civic body had set a target of removing 53,578 metric tonnes of silt from the ten stretches of the Mithi river in the post-monsoon season, it has so far been able to achieve only 30.14 per cent of its target.

What’s next?

Amid the contractor gap, the BMC is set to float fresh tenders to appoint three new contractors to carry out desilting work in the Mithi river.

According to senior officials, the tender is likely to be published next week and the tender file is currently under review.

While the final cost of the desilting tenders is yet to be secured, civic top brass said the cost is likely to be below Rs 90 crore. “We hope that some bidders will participate in the bidding process. While sediment extraction was affected in the previous season, we hope to achieve our target in the upcoming season,” said a BMC official.

While efforts to curb sewage outfalls and clean Mithi are delayed until completion, desilting has remained an ongoing annual activity to mitigate floods. Data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) law shows that between 2006 and 2025, the BMC spent at least Rs. 415 crore on desilting of river Mithi.