NEW DELHI: In a bid to combat waterlogging across the city, the Delhi government will start desilting the city drains from April 15, with the Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) also set to launch a two-month long project for this purpose.
The department has set a target of June 15 for completing the desilting works.
In a written reply to a question asked by Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta in the Assembly, Delhi PWD Minister Satyendar Jain said the department is inviting tenders for the desilting works.
"The PWD is inviting tenders for desilting of drains and the target of starting the work is April 15, 2018," the minister told the House.
Residents of the Capital are plagued with waterlogging every year during monsoon.
There are around 165 major drains in the city and last year, the desilting of drains had caused tussle between the elected government and bureaucracy.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had even sought action against then PWD Secretary Ashwani Kumar for not obeying his order over desilting of drains.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had also formed a high-level committee to look after desilting of drains and open manholes in the Capital.
The committee was formed to coordinate with various agencies for the desilting work, so that they did not end up passing the buck to each other.
Earlier, the drainage master plan, prepared by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, was submitted to the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in December 2016, four years after the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit government commissioned it in 2012.
The report highlighted the need for the city's storm-water drainage system to remain free of sewage and solid waste.
Another recommendation was that the impact of a new drain on the existing network is taken into account.
Around 40 to 50 projects, which will include changing the slope of a drain to ease flow, laying pipes to convey storm-water from the surface to nearby parks or water bodies, would be identified by the team in the next two to three months, officials said.
While experts welcomed the new master plan, as the previous one was made in 1976, they said the implementation of solutions in the report would be key.
The master plan highlights problems that environmentalists have been pointing out for years, such as covering up of drains and mixing of sewage and storm-water. Since storm-water drains have not been cleaned or have been commandeered for conveying sewage, they end up flooding during rains, leading to waterlogging and traffic snarls.