NEW DELHI: The waterlogging at Minto Road was hardly a surprise on Sunday. In a repeat of what has been seen since the 1990s, a DTC bus got submerged in water stagnated in the railway underpass barely an hour after heavy rainfall lashed the capital.
The low-lying areas bordering the jurisdiction of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporationwere heavily waterlogged and various civic agencies passed the buck to each other for the mess that stopped the heart of the city till noon.
While north corporation said the road fell under the jurisdiction of PWD, the latter claimed the waterlogging occurred because a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) pipe was choked. In 2018, DJB had claimed that the blockage in front of BJP headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg had been removed. Except last year, Minto Road has always been a vulnerable spot, sending agencies guessing about how waterlogging occurs despite suction pumps being placed at five different points.
The mayor of north corporation, Jai Prakash, said that the waterlogging was the result of negligence on part of PWD. He alleged that PWD and DJB officials were informed about the problem, but no one reached here. “Though the underpass comes under PWD’s jurisdiction, we are carrying out the water removal work. Three out five pumps operated by PWD are not running,” he claimed.
A senior DJB official said that a team visited the site and the brick barrel line that carries water from Minto Bridge towards ITO was found to be running smoothly.
“There is no blockage in the DJB pipeline. The pumps at Minto bridge are operated by PWD and it is likely that they did not switch them on. Because of this, the water kept on accumulating,” added the official, saying DJB was only responsible for the sewer lines and not the stormwater drains that are managed by north corporation and PWD.
A senior PWD official said, “The pumps are manned round the clock, so the allegation that nobody was present to switch on the pumps is baseless and false. When it started raining around 4am, the pumps were started as a precautionary measure. The area was closed for traffic when water started accumulating. The stretch was thrown open by 12pm.”
The Minto Road case is a classic example of the problem of multiplicity of authorities looking after Delhi’s drainage. The problematic point lies at the junction of the jurisdiction of NDMC and north corporation, while the water collecting in the low-lying area passes through a DJB line. In June 2018, when the DJB line had emerged as a problem, the agency had claimed that it was working towards resolving it.
The low-lying areas bordering the jurisdiction of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporationwere heavily waterlogged and various civic agencies passed the buck to each other for the mess that stopped the heart of the city till noon.
While north corporation said the road fell under the jurisdiction of PWD, the latter claimed the waterlogging occurred because a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) pipe was choked. In 2018, DJB had claimed that the blockage in front of BJP headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg had been removed. Except last year, Minto Road has always been a vulnerable spot, sending agencies guessing about how waterlogging occurs despite suction pumps being placed at five different points.
The mayor of north corporation, Jai Prakash, said that the waterlogging was the result of negligence on part of PWD. He alleged that PWD and DJB officials were informed about the problem, but no one reached here. “Though the underpass comes under PWD’s jurisdiction, we are carrying out the water removal work. Three out five pumps operated by PWD are not running,” he claimed.
A senior DJB official said that a team visited the site and the brick barrel line that carries water from Minto Bridge towards ITO was found to be running smoothly.
“There is no blockage in the DJB pipeline. The pumps at Minto bridge are operated by PWD and it is likely that they did not switch them on. Because of this, the water kept on accumulating,” added the official, saying DJB was only responsible for the sewer lines and not the stormwater drains that are managed by north corporation and PWD.
A senior PWD official said, “The pumps are manned round the clock, so the allegation that nobody was present to switch on the pumps is baseless and false. When it started raining around 4am, the pumps were started as a precautionary measure. The area was closed for traffic when water started accumulating. The stretch was thrown open by 12pm.”
The Minto Road case is a classic example of the problem of multiplicity of authorities looking after Delhi’s drainage. The problematic point lies at the junction of the jurisdiction of NDMC and north corporation, while the water collecting in the low-lying area passes through a DJB line. In June 2018, when the DJB line had emerged as a problem, the agency had claimed that it was working towards resolving it.
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