New Delhi: Ahead of the Monsoon season, the Mayors of the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi addressed a joint press conference on Friday and spoke about the progress made in desilting and removing water logging. The Mayors said that the MCD will complete desilting of all the drains in the city by June 20, before the onset of the monsoon.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Anamika Mithilesh Singh said that the civic agency has completed 60 percent work of silt removal from its drains. "Nearly 16,000 metric tons of silt has been removed from 272 drains coming under jurisdiction of the SDMC. Small drains with depth up to 4 feet come under municipalities and work of silt removal from such drains is in full swing". SDMC has 272 drains with a total length of 188.38 km.
North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash said that there are drains of five agencies mainly in Delhi. The major drains are of Public Works Department, DSIIDC, Irrigation and Flood Control Department Delhi Jal Board and municipal corporation's. The outfall of small drains of municipal corporations of Delhi are in bigger drains of these departments of Delhi Government. If all agencies work together before the monsoon, then Delhi can be saved from water logging.
Jai Prakash also said that desilting work for 192 big drains with a depth of above four feet under the jurisdiction of North MCD (length 112.25 kilometres) is almost complete. "555 Nalla beldars, 16 suction machines, 2 super succor machines and state-of-the-art machines like JCB have been pressed in for the process of desilting. 8312 metric tons of silt from these drains have been extracted and sent to the Bhalswa landfill site. Pumping stations are functioning perfectly on all the rail under bridges under the jurisdiction of North MCD.
Besides this, 127 small portable pumps have been arranged so that they can be used when required. In order to deal with the situation of water logging North DMC has set up a 24/7 control room".
Mayor of East Delhi, Nirmal Jain said that there are 219 drains under East Delhi Municipal Corporation with a total length of 121 kilometers. He said that EDMC has a target of removing 46000 MT silt from its drains and about 10000 MT silt has already been removed so far.
East MCD has made arrangements for 180 small portable pumps which will be used when required.