No choking of drains this monsoon, says Patiala municipal corporation

PATIALA: The Patiala municipal corporation (PMC) is geared up to tackle the challenges of monsoon this year, as the PMC got cleaned entire 504km stretch of the sewerage line in the city, both manually and mechanically, claim corporation officials.
The officials said that over 160 PMC employees are involved in the cleaning of sewerage lines in the royal city, which has more than five lakh population. Around 65 million liters per day (MLD) of sewage water flows into the drains each hour. The officials revealed that circular pipelines have been used in the sewerage line that keeps the sewage water flowing without any hurdles, even if sometimes there are blockages due to the noncooperation of local residents.
“The city saw its first rain of the season around a fortnight ago and there was no blockage. This clearly indicates that there is no blockage in the circular pipelines. Even the process of selfcleaning is done by the rainwater during the monsoons. The only hurdle is a lack of awareness among the residents who keep throwing polythene bags and similar garbage that sometimes lead to blockage. We are continuously making efforts to make the resident aware of the polythene problem. The water from these sewerage pipelines will further flow into the drains,” said water supply and sewerage executive engineer Suresh Kumar. He added that an 18km trunk sewerage line has been cleaned mechanically with the help of super-suction machines.
When asked if the blocked drains will further lead to blockage in the city during the monsoons, he said, “We have cleaned the part of drains that falls in our precincts and till now it seems that rainwater sewerage flow will have a clear way as further cleaning process of the drains is underway.”
However, notwithstanding the claims of officials concerned, the Patiala residents may have to face waterlogging during the monsoons this year again, as the district administration has failed to get cleaned the blocked drains in which the rainwater is released during rains. The cleaning of drains including “Ganda Nala” and Jacob Drain in the city has remained a challenge for the authorities as they have managed to clean only a 19km stretch of the drain. Besides, there are only two supersuction machines with the Patiala corporation for cleaning of drains.
In more than a year, the corporation failed to get cleaned the drains including Ganda Nala and Jacob Drain. The tenders for cleaning were floated thrice but all in vain as the private firms did not show interest. However, after the tender was floated fourth time, one of the firms showed interest and was allocated the project of Rs 1.20 crore. But no work has been done by the firm. The corporation also did not take any interest to check the work of the private firm, neither did it cancel its tender or reissued the tenders to any other firm.
A few days ago, the Punjab government released Rs 16 crore to clear the Jacob Drain, but the project would take at least four months to complete the work and by then, the monsoons will recede.