The Pune civic body Friday swung into action to accelerate monsoon preparedness work after untimely rain brought life to standstill in the city a day earlier.

After holding a meeting with civic officials on the issue, Pune Mayor Manjusha Nagpure said, “It has been observed that the water-carrying capacity of the existing storm water drains is less. They need to be widened as per guideline.”

She said that efficient mechanism is needed to cater to emergency situation arising due to heavy rain within a short span. “A survey of nallahs has been directed to identify encroachments and take action against them. We should have preparedness for cloud burst situation and change the strategy for handling it effectively,” added the mayor.

Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said, “PMC does monsoon preparedness in April and May. There was cloud burst like rainfall in two places in the city. However, we admit that construction debris and dumping of waste in open added to blocking of storm water drains and led to water logging.”

Urbanisation in Pune has doubled since 2021 while the Pune Municipal Corporation’s staff strength has reduced by 30 per cent, Ram said, adding that more focused approach is required to avoid Thursday-like situation.

Ram said the PMC has identified 227 spots of water logging where corrective work has to be undertaken, and he added that work has been carried out at 58 such spots already.

Moreover, work has been started at 22 more places and the remaining spots will be dealt with from Monday. The municipal commissioner added that nodal officers have been appointed to get the work done effectively.

He further said that 32 wadas (colonies) are in dangerous condition, and occupants will be forcefully vacated to avoid any untoward incident.

On Thursday, Pune received its highest rainfall in the month of April since 1896. As the skies opened up on Thursday afternoon, NDA recorded 84 mm of rain; Shivajinagar recorded 65 mm, Hadapsar 42 mm, Pashan 36.3 mm, Chinchwad received 28.5 mm and Lohegaon 21 mm.