Every gap in drainage system to be fixed: CM reviews plans

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, reviewed the progress of the Delhi Drainage Master Plan on Tuesday and said that necessary changes suggested by IIT Delhi will be implemented to bolster the drainage system of the Capital which aims to further enhance the system to deal with heavy rainfall.

The review meeting comes the weekend after heavy rains exposed the drainage systems in the city, with Minto Bridge seeing flooding despite best efforts.

The CM assured that the city will soon get freedom from waterlogging as work is being expedited on Delhi's Drainage Master Plan. He instructed the concerned officials to implement solutions on the ground level in order to make the drainage system foolproof. "Delhi will soon get freedom from water-logging; necessary changes will be implemented to further bolster the drainage system," Kejriwal said.

A senior official present in the meeting said that the CM has directed individual offices to take up small projects under the Master Plan and to execute it efficiently. "In this way accountability and responsibility is enhanced which results in better outcomes," the official told Millennium Post. The CM directed officials to take up specific projects like implementing solutions for fixing slopes of drains, connecting storm drains to the larger drainage system and much more.

In the meeting, Kejriwal said that consultants or a "Technical Expert Committee" will be roped in to plan and present project reports for all drainage lines to expedite the implementation of the projects, the senior official said. The Committee has been given the authority to decide design parameters and technical inputs like rainfall intensity, return period, runoff coefficient, retention period for the Drainage Master Plan while experts from IIT Delhi have been roped in to analyse the drainage systems and suggest solutions for them. The recommendations include — no encroachments, sewage, and Solid Waste or construction work in storm water drains which will not be drained into sewer systems. Rejuvenation of water bodies is also another recommendation.

The objective of the Master Plan is to formulate a plan for drainage for the Capital for about the next 30-35 years which should also be compatible with the Master Plan of Delhi-2041 for improvement of Delhi's drainage within a fixed time frame and to formulate an Action Plan for implementation of the Master Plan in phases. The Master plan also includes providing feasibility reports for priority projects for the first five years along with further plans to cater to the needs of the people.

"Every gap in the drainage system of Delhi has to be plugged. If there's a fallacy in the slope of a drain, it needs to be fixed. If any drain is meeting a dead end, it needs to be corrected. A proper plan should be chalked out for connecting smaller drains with the large drainage lines," Kejriwal said after the meeting.

There are about 2,846 drains with a length of about 3692 km and majority of which are with the Public Works Department (PWD).