The Supreme Court Wednesday warned authorities in the national capital region of a Mumbai-like flood disaster if immediate steps were not taken to clear encroachments along the Yamuna river.

A bench of judges Y.K. Sabharwal and B.N. Agrawal pulled up authorities in Delhi for lack of political will to clear and stop encroachments on the banks of the Yamuna.

The bench said the government, irrespective of the political party in power, had showed little will to stop encroachment on the banks of the river, leading to pollution.

The rapid influx of migrants to New Delhi and the open political invitation to settle in the capital with an assurance that illegal settlements would be regularised had a debilitating effect on the city's civic amenities including the sewer system, water and electricity supply, it said.

The bench pointed out that the cut-off date for regularisation of slums had been like a mirage, as the first cut-off year of 1972 had kept moving forward.

"There is a total observation of all the laws in breach," the bench said during the course of hearing a Yamuna water pollution case pending in the apex court for over 10 years.

"The civic amenities are under severe strain. That is what happened in Mumbai where the civic amenities collapsed under severe pressure from the increasing number of people.

"It is bound to happen here unless some urgent steps were taken," the bench said.