Arterial stretches in Sushant Lok 1, Mall Mile, Sectors 27, 28, 29, Cyber City, and areas around DLF Phases 1-5 are likely to remain vulnerable to waterlogging as the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is yet to start cleaning stormwater drains in these areas.

These areas fall under wards 33, 34, and 35 for which the MCG floated a Rs 60.63-lakh tender only on Monday for procuring an agency that can clean, repair, and maintain drains in these areas for a period of 12 months.

Biddings for the tender will be opened on June 20 following which a concessionaire will be finalised, said officials.

“For several reasons we weren’t able to float tenders for clearing drains in these areas in advance. The MCG recently received approval from the state government to float short tenders, which essentially helps us in finalising a contractor within two weeks of floating tenders unlike the usual process which takes more than a month. Work on desilting drains in wards 33, 34, and 35 will commence by the end of this month,” said Anand Singh Rathee, executive engineer of MCG who had floated the tender.

Rathee declined to comment on the reasons for the bids not being floated in advance.

MCG officials said that in order to desilt a stretch of stormwater drain completely, it requires around two months of continuous work which indicate that these areas may remain vulnerable to waterlogging this season as monsoon is expected to hit Delhi-NCR region by the first week of July, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD).

An MCG official privy to the development said due to the model code of conduct in force for the general elections, new tenders could not be floated earlier.

“We cannot start desilting work before April as the drains start getting clogged soon after the work is completed, garbage, and dust starts accumulating inside. The model code of conduct for the general elections this year meant that tenders could not be floated in March or April which meant drains could not be cleaned in the three crucial months before monsoon,” said the official.

Last month, both the MCG and Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had taken cognisance of this delay and decided to collaborate for cleaning stormwater drains across the city.

GMDA and MCG officials had conceded that they did not have enough time left for monsoon preparedness as tenders for most areas had not been floated, including waterlogging prone areas such as Subhash Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Vatika Chowk, and Golf Course Extension Road.

V Umashankar, chief executive officer of the GMDA and outgoing MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav, had decided to clean drains in each other’s jurisdiction instead of floating new tenders.

The GMDA looks after all master drains in the city while MCG maintains arterial drains.

First Published: Jun 13, 2019 02:49 IST