Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 1

Monsoon is just round the corner and de-silting of sewer lines is still incomplete in the city. There are also chances of low-lying areas remaining waterlogged during the monsoon.

Apart from de-silting of sewer lines, there is also a need for infrastructural development to tackle the waterlogging issue in several localities. However, the Municipal Corporation didn’t make any serious effort to develop the infrastructure for the drainage of rainwater. Most of the areas in the city are deprived of storm sewers to drain rainwater. The sanitary sewer lines are unable to tackle the heavy flow of water. In the absence of timely de-silting, sewer lines in the city get choked.

In the last several years, the area around Heritage Street in the walled city has been facing regular waterlogging. According to information, the disposal of the sewer line of the Heritage Street area is at Lohgarh Nullah. When it rains, the nullah overflows and poses a hurdle in the disposal of water coming from the Katra Ahluwalia side. Similarly, some of the areas of the Focal Point and Sultanwind Road witnesses waterlogging.

The Municipal Corporation officials and Mayor Karmajit Singh Rintu claimed that they have spent a good amount on de-silting and the residents would not face any issue during the rainy season.

Mayor Karmajit Singh Rintu had visited the Tung Dhab and initiated the de-silting project to address the problem of water-logging on the Batala Road and Majitha Road areas a few weeks ago.

Mahesh Khanna, chairman, sub-committee for water supply and sewerage of MC said: “I have written to the department officials to submit the status report of de-silting in the city. We have conducted de-silting in the walled city area with new machines brought to clean the narrow lines in the congested lanes of the walled city. De-silting has been conducted on all main lines with super-suction machines. The constituency level report would be prepared soon.”