Civic body’s ₹1,600cr plan to tackle flooding in New Delhi
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has prepared a long-term action plan for its drainage system to prevent waterlogging and instances of flooding — two issues that plagued the New Delhi region during the monsoon last year, civic body officials said on Thursday.
A senior official said that NDMC will also carry out shortterm plans to rectify immediate issues within its drainage systems. The official said that the plans were devised after a study conducted by the council, and will include desilting in 17 vulnerable areas.
“We studied the maximum discharge capacity of drainage systems within New Delhi and outlined the key causes behind waterlogging. 14 sub-drainage systems have been marked in the overall system comprising 578km of covered drains, 11,907 manholes and 14,264 bell mouths,” the official said.
A second NDMC official said that the drainage system within NDMC limits is between the Ridge on the west, Yamuna on the east, and the Ring Road on the south. “The area on the north of India Gate — Connaught Place and the surrounding region — directly reach the Yamuna through the MCD drain systems,” the official said.
“Most of our drainage channels fall into Kushak and Sunehari Pulla drain which finally go to Barapullah before reaching the
Yamuna,” a second official said.
Vulnerable areas
According to the plan, the key reasons behind large- scale flooding in the region include rapid urbanisation near the Barapullah basin, realignment of drains due to PWD and Delhi Metro work and an inverted elevation level near the outfall of Sunehari Pulla drain.
“Due to the construction of pucca road and buildings in the catchment area, the run-off water reaches the drain rapidly towards the outfall causing the flooding. The immediate outfall at Sunehri Pulla and Purana Quila road is now higher marred by reduced capacity,” the plan said.
The drainage plan identified 17 vulnerable points in the system including Purana Qila Road, Zakir Husain Marg, Golf Links, Bharti Nagar, Lodhi Estate, AIIMS underbridge, Panchkuian Road, and Connaught Place middle circle, among others.
The civic body estimates that around ₹ 1,600 crore will be spent on the rehabilitation and strengthening work in the drainage subsystem. In addition, NDMC will set up six control rooms to respond to waterlogging-related issues. “Each control room will be equipped with portable pumps, generator sets, trucks and tools with nodal duty officers,” said Kuljeet Chahal, NDMC council member.