Expect flooded Delhi roads again this monsoon

NEW DELHI: Thursday’s scenes of waterlogged roads and long traffic jams in rain-hit Mumbai could well be playing out in Delhi a few weeks later. For, the deadline set for de-silting of drains in the capital is just eight days away and the civic agencies are woefully behind schedule.

The situation is particularly worrisome in East Delhi, where the municipal corporation has only been able to achieve barely 20% of the desilting target while 78% (244 out of 312) of the Public Works Department’s drains currently fall under the category of “less than 25% de-silting”.

PWD minister Satyendar Jain had announced in April that de-silting work will be over by June 15. However, in 70% of the sites (726 out of 1,036), the department has not even completed 25% de-silting. Only 87 sites have been completely cleared, according to the latest report.

In the East zone, 78% of the drains fall under the “less than quarter” category. The corresponding figures in North and South zones are 75% and 49%, respectively.

The normal date of the monsoon’s arrival in the capital is June 29. For the civic agencies, it will be a frantic race against time from here on. In the PWD’s Monday review meeting held by the engineer-in-chief, officials talked about the “urgent need to expedite progress”.

A similar story had played out last year. Roads were severely waterlogged in several parts of the city after light rain of 5-10mm. The delay in de-silting had led to a tussle between the government and bureaucracy, with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking action against then PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar for not obeying his orders on de-silting.

This year, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal had formed a high-level committee to look after de-silting and opening of manholes in the capital. The committee was expected to coordinate with various agencies so that they did not end up passing the buck among each other.

Among the municipal corporations, the situation is the most acute in East DMC areas. A senior DEMS (sanitation department) official blamed the protests and legal obstacles in finding a silt dumping site for the delay.

Dumping of silt at the Ghazipur landfill was banned after last year’s landfill collapse which claimed two lives. We had started depositing silt at the Geeta Colony site but locals began protesting and the dumping was stayed by courts,” official said.

The official claimed that desilting work only began in the past week after the civic body was given a location at Singhola village near Singhu border (Narela) for dumping. “The new site is at the double the distance from the old one. This has made de-silting much more expensive for the cash-strapped body,” he added.

The north corporation has claimed 70% of its desilting work is over and that it would meet the deadline. “We are expediting work at all the remaining sites to finish in the next week,” a spokesperson said. South DMC has claimed that 97% of its allotted work is over. These claims will face the rain test when the monsoon arrives.