Delhi govt ropes in consultants to resolve drainage problems
Mar 21, 2022
New Delhi [India], March 21 : The Delhi government on Monday decided to ropes in consultants to resolve the national capital's drainage problems, the Public Works Department (PWD) informed in its official release.
According to the PWD release, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress of the Delhi Drainage Master Plan at the Delhi Secretariat.
During the meeting, it was decided to look after the Najafgarh Basin as well as the Trans-Yamuna and Barapulla Basin.
The chief minister laid focus on bringing the entire project under the purview of one agency.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Cheif Minister Manish Sisodia who holds the PWD portfolio as well senior officials of the department. The officials thoroughly presented the whole action plan to the Chief Minister and also apprised him of the timelines of the appointments of consultants.
Kejriwal said, ''We have been working very hard to resolve Delhi's drainage and water-logging problems. This is our dream project. We should initiate discussions with all caretaker agencies and ask them to let us have charge of transforming the drainage system. A plan must be chalked out for this purpose so that requisite approvals can be sought for.''
He directed officials to make necessary preparations to seek approvals from all concerned agencies so that the Delhi Government can adopt the responsibility of the whole project.
The chief minister further directed to resolve the problem of waterlogging during heavy rains soon. For this purpose, necessary changes will be made in every wastewater drain and stormwater drain, so that even during heavy rains, better drainage can be ensured and the problem of waterlogging can be resolved.
A separate project will be made for minor changes required in every drain in specific. The concerned officers have been instructed to prepare the complete plan at the earliest, the release said.
The government will appoint two consultants to look after the project. One consultant will handle the works of the Najafgarh basin. The second consultant will look after the Trans-Yamuna and Barapullah basins.
They will prepare the blueprints for augmenting Delhi's drainage systems and monitor the implementation work as well.
Delhi had received up to 110 mm rainfall per day, last year, which led to serious waterlogging issues in many areas. In this regard, PWD has identified various hotspots of water logging in the capital and has been working to prepare such infrastructure, which will prevent waterlogging in the future, the release said.
