Mumbai, July 7 (IANS) The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Tuesday alleged that the recent spell of torrential rain across Mumbai, the Konkan region and other parts of Maharashtra has exposed the shortcomings of several flagship infrastructure projects showcased by the state government.
From pre-monsoon drain desilting in Mumbai to the state’s heavily publicised “rapid progress”, nature has completely debunked the official narrative, it said.
The Thackeray camp, in the party mouthpiece Saamana, stated that the state government had generated immense publicity around the Mumbai-Pune Expressway ‘Missing Link’ project. However, the high-tech corridor was brought to a standstill during the very first spell of heavy rain. On Monday morning, a massive crater opened up within the project area, creating an internal waterfall that effectively washed away the government’s promises of seamless, high-speed travel.
The editorial remarked, “The political handling of the incident has followed a predictable pattern. Whenever such structural failures occur, the ruling politicians shift accountability to nature to cover up administrative lapses. In the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis deflected the blame entirely onto the unprecedented weather conditions. He maintained that while the administration had completed all necessary pre-monsoon preparations, the intensity of the downpour exceeded all engineering expectations — a defensive explanation that has become standard practice.”
The editorial further said that this follows a recent controversy where several potholes appeared along the same Missing Link stretch. Instead of providing a sound technical explanation to the opposition’s criticisms, the leadership brushed it off with a bizarre assertion that the patches were part of an “engineering technique”. For such a highly anticipated flagship project, the need for damage control just months after opening raises serious concerns.
The Thackeray camp claimed that the Missing Link is not an isolated incident. The standard of several other landmark infrastructure projects across the state has come under fire. The Samruddhi Mahamarg, once aggressively promoted as a world-class highway, was torn apart during its first monsoon. Potholes and cracks have now become a permanent fixture. The situation deteriorated to a point where the government had to deploy a dedicated 24-hour special task force to patch up recurring cracks, said the editorial.
According to the editorial, on Sunday, severe roof leakages were reported across two functional metro lines, forcing authorities to place plastic buckets on platforms to collect rainwater. This mirrors last year’s monsoon, where rainwater cascaded like waterfalls inside under-construction and operational underground stations, leaving commuters navigating through accumulated silt. The standard pre-monsoon works and drain-cleaning drives in Mumbai have yielded similarly poor results. Open manholes and uprooted trees have already claimed six to seven innocent lives this season, added the editorial.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena said that supporters of Devendra Fadnavis frequently label him an ‘Inframan’, pointing toward a massive portfolio of mega-projects including the Samruddhi Mahamarg, Metro Rail network, Atal Setu, Shaktipeeth Expressway, Vadhavan Port, the ‘Fourth Mumbai’ urban plan, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and the Missing Link. However, successive monsoon seasons have acted as a reality check, deflating these claims of “world-class excellence” one by one.
“Monday’s structural breach at the Missing Link — which effectively washed away thousands of crores of public taxpayers’ money into a muddy waterfall — is the latest example,” observed the Thackeray camp.
With claims constantly getting buried in the potholes of Samruddhi or drowned in the leakages of the Missing Link, the citizens of Maharashtra are left asking a fundamental question: “How exactly is he an Inframan?” asked the editorial.
–IANS
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