New Delhi: Despite best efforts, after having failed to deal with waterlogging last monsoon, the Delhi government has now started preparing early for this year's rains, with PWD Minister Manish Sisodia chairing a high-level meeting on Thursday to oversee the preparations.
Sisodia held a review meeting in which he directed the concerned officials to take all preventive measures by the end of May to prevent any inconvenience to the public and along with it, he also reviewed the progress of various ongoing projects.
Last year the Capital faced a serious water logging problem when it received up to 110 mm rainfall per day and in order to avoid such a situation again, the minister directed all the concerned departments including PWD to prepare short-term and long-term strategies to prevent it.
The PWD already has a list of 147 "usual suspects" - spots where waterlogging is regular - to act preemptively.
In Pul Prahladpur Underpass, for instance, the plan is to construct an underground sump of 7.5 lakh litre capacity and a permanent pump house of 600 horsepower. The construction work of the underground sump and pump house will be completed by the end of May and along with it, 7 temporary pumps will also be installed which will have a total capacity of 500 horsepower, the PWD department said in a statement.
At the Zakira Flyover underpass, waste from temporary drains built by railways often leads to waterlogging. For this, the government will install the PWD screen to stop the waste from the railways and the work of modification of the drain in the area is also being done.
On Ring Road, 9 pumps will be installed along with a construction of a 1.5 lakh liter sump and stormwater drain from the old IP power plant to the Yamuna. The Action plan for Jahangirpuri Metro Station Road includes the construction of a drain along with service road and reconstruction of an old SW drain and construction of a permanent pump house is also included.
The Delhi government will set up an alternate drainage system and an automatic water pump near Minto-Bridge to improve its preparedness in the area and avoid waterlogging there. The department is also working on the desilting of stormwater drains which is expected to be completed before May 31.
While these measures are being taken, the Delhi government's ambitious plan to overhaul Delhi's drainage system — that was announced last year — has not resulted in much. While an IIT-led panel was engaged to prepare a renewed Drainage Master Plan of Delhi, the recommendations and suggestions from the panel were not detailed enough for the Delhi government.
Following this, the PWD department was made the nodal agency to take the project forward and also engage expert consultants to come up with a plan for the drainage system overhaul in the city.
The Capital has around 2,846 drains running a length of over 3,600 km. A major chunk of these is maintained and managed by the Public Works Department and the drains are divided into zones of the three major natural basins — Trans Yamuna, Barapullah and Najafgarh.
Meanwhile, Delhi recorded the warmest day of the season on Thursday as the maximum temperature settled five notches above normal at 36.1 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The sky was largely clear throughout the day. Though the mercury is expected to rise by one or two notches in the coming days, it is unlikely to touch 40 degrees Celsius, an IMD official said.
"Delhi recorded the warmest day of the season with the maximum temperature reaching 36.1 degrees Celsius. In the coming days, the temperature is expected to rise but it will not touch 40 degrees Celsius as there would be winds," RK Jenamani, a senior scientist at the IMD, said.