Plans for mitigating floods taken up in Cabinet

Vadodara: The state cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday discussed the Vadodara floods and deliberated on the measures to avoid such disasters in the future. Minister of state for Narmada and urban housing Yogesh Patel made a series of representations and said that projects would be taken up soon in this regard.
Patel said that the meeting discussed the situation in the city in detail and spent quite some time on it. According to the minister, projects of diverting water from the Vishwamitri river as well as water entering the city from the eastern side were discussed.
According to Patel, the problem of waterlogging was particularly acute in the eastern parts of the city like Waghodiya Road and Ajwa Road. “The project of diverting water to Vishwamitri river from these areas has been completed. I have sought that the other storm water drain diverting water from these areas to Jambuva river should also be taken up and completed at the earliest,” he said.
Patel also said that he discussed the project of diverting Vishwamitri water to Mahi river at the meeting. He said that a report by the National Institute of Hydrology had suggested that the water from Vishwamitri could be diverted using the Mini river to Mahi.
The Manjalpur MLA also said that the Pratappura reservoir located on the upstream of Ajwa reservoir could be revived and deepened so that it could store more water. This would ensure that in case of heavy rains in the catchment area of Ajwa reservoir, water did not enter Ajwa directly.