MUMBAI: The BMC on Saturday blacklisted for three years a contractor who had been given the responsibility of desilting minor nallahs, culverts and roadside drains in M West ward, covering Chembur and Govandi. After the civic body found the contractor, M/s Bhumika Transport, adding debris to the silt to increase its weight, the company’s two-year contract, worth around ₹13 crore, was cancelled without any money being paid. The contractor’s registration with the BMC was also cancelled and a complaint was filed with the Nehru Nagar police station.
“We were alerted through a complaint with photographic and video evidence of the contractor mixing debris into the silt in the dumpers transporting the silt,” said Shankar Bhosale, assistant commissioner of M West ward. “As the vehicle number was visible, we got details about the contractor through it. Other photographs of the same vehicle and contractor were checked, which were uploaded onto our AI system, which proved that debris was being mixed with the silt to manipulate the weight.”
In March, the BMC had announced that it would be using AI-powered systems to detect malpractices in desilting by analysing mandatory videos of the desilting process. As monitoring each vehicle is not possible, the process would be automated, additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar had told HT.
“For example, if construction debris or rocks are being dumped instead of the expected silt, AI-powered systems will help detect these irregularities,” he had said, adding that the anomalies would be flagged in real time, allowing for immediate verification by an onsite official.
However, when asked on Saturday why AI had not detected the cheating earlier, Bhosale said that identifying the adulteration required officers to inspect the footage. “This incident came to us through a complaint, but we were able to investigate further and pinpoint the contractor and the day the video was taken through AI,” he said.
Defending AI, he added, “AI has separately been flagging several discrepancies which we have been dealing with, but this incident was intentional and with malafide intention, which is why taking strict action was necessary. AI is new and is learning to flag dust due to silt adulteration. It keeps learning.”
Following the detection the company was sent a show cause notice on April 28. Its responses on April 30 and May 7 proved unsatisfactory, following which the action was taken.
As per the BMC’s data, till Saturday, 4,37,630 metric tonnes of silt were removed from Mumbai’s nallahs in its pre-monsoon desilting exercise against a target of 9,63,810 metric tonnes. This falls short of the quantum of silt that should have been removed by now by the BMC’s own estimate to reach its target in time. The deficiencies are chiefly due to a lag in desilting in the island city and from the Mithi river.
A total of 1,46,029 images and 1,51,414 videos have been uploaded on the BMC’s website of the desilting.
Additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Joshi, who on Saturday inspected desilting works at several nallahs in Zone 2, which covers parts of Central Mumbai, also mentioned the use of AI to analyse the real quantity of silt removed. She gave instructions to remove the old gate at Lovegrove Sewage Pumping Station and ordered the floating garbage at the Dadar-Dharavi nallah to be removed daily and disposed of properly.