Now, a lake to divert water and stop farm flooding at Najafgarh

GURUGRAM: The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) will develop a lake on 97 acres of land around the Najafgarh dam to prevent flooding of 2,500 acres of agricultural land in the vicinity.
This decision was taken at the 11th meeting of the GMDA in the city on Friday, chaired by CM Manohar Lal Khattar.
Agricultural land in over a dozen villages near the Najafgarh dam remain submerged throughout the year as the three key drains of Gurugram, including the Badshapur drain, flush the rainwater out of the city.
In the meeting held at the public works department’s rest house in the city, the GMDA also finalised an underpass project at Bakhtawar Chowk. Several other important projects were also discussed to expedite the infrastructure development of the city. This means the annual budget of the development authority will go up this year.
“The measures to save about 2,500 acres of agricultural land adjacent to the Najafgarh dam were discussed in the meeting,” an official told TOI. “It was decided that a lake will be developed on 97 acres of land to prevent flooding of the nearby agricultural land.”
“The Badshapur drain will also be connected with the Najafgarh drain. At present, the Badshapur drain releases water into the farmland near the Najafgarh drain where the sewer water of the city also gets disposed of,” he added.
In the meeting, GMDA also got the approval to construct a canal to supply 200 MLD recycled water from the Berhampur sewerage treatment plant (STP) of Gurugram to Nuh. “The city’s sewer water will be diverted to this STP for treatment. After the completion of this project, the city’s waterlogging problems will be almost resolved,” the official said.
The agenda for decongestion of traffic at Bakhtawar Chowk was also tabled in the meeting. “GMDA officials submitted that an integrated underpass should be preferred due to its benefits over the flyover model and the proposal was approved by the Authority,” the official said.
The pilot project of the installation of the state’s first Floating Solar Power Plant of 4 MW capacity in the Chandu-Budhera WTP area was also approved. The project will prove to be an economical source of electricity to the plant and will reduce the evaporation levels at the WTP.
GMDA CEO Sudhir Rajpal, in the meeting, outlined that in 2021-2022, the authority executed infrastructure development projects worth Rs 556.44 crore viz-a-viz expenses to the tune of Rs 447 crore incurred in 2020-2021.
Currently, 40 projects worth Rs 1083.25 crore are being executed in Infra 1 division, while 14 projects worth Rs 1,141.99 crore are in the pipeline. Similarly, 24 projects worth Rs 580.48 crore are being implemented in the Infra 2 division.
The Smart City division of the authority is executing two projects worth Rs 162.22 crore while projects worth Rs 61 crore are in the pipeline of the Mobility division.
Various works are also being undertaken by the urban environment division of the GMDA for the redevelopment of the Wazirabad Lake in 18 acres which include desilting, providing treated water to the lake and erecting a fence along its boundary.