L-G Saxena inspects construction of Airport drain & 5 water bodies in Dwarka; to be completed by May 2023
New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Sunday inspected the construction of the Airport drain and five water bodies in Dwarka.
Travellers bound to the IGI Airport and the residents of the Dwarka Sub-city in the national Capital are set for a big relief from flooding and waterlogging during the monsoons, starting next year. A major drainage project to channelise the rain and storm water discharge from the IGI Airport to Najafgarh Drain, being executed by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the guidance of Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, is fast progressing and will be completed by May 2023.
DDA, at the same time, is also creating 5 water bodies in the Dwarka region that will be used for storing the overflowing rain water during the monsoons. Once completed these water bodies will have the total storage capacity of 1.22 lakh CuM of water that will prevent the rain water from flooding onto the streets.
This major project was stuck for the last two years due to pending permissions for tree cutting/translocation from the Delhi government. It was only after the L-G's intervention that permission for tree translocation was given and the work on the airport drain commenced on November 20.
The L-G, who has already undertaken three visits to the Airport Drain in the last one month, inspected the construction site at Dwarka Sector – 8 on Sunday and directed the officials to enhance the manpower and other resources to complete the drainage work at the earliest. Saxena also inspected the sites for these water bodies and asked the officials to complete the digging and dredging work by next month.
The 2.5 km long airport drain will require 72,000 CuM of earth removal out of which 8,200 CuM of earth has been removed so far. The lining work has also begun simultaneous so as to maintain the pace of the work and cause minimum disruption of traffic. The L-G has issued strict instructions
to finish the construction
work by May 20 next year and warned against any laxity on part of the officials.
It is pertinent to mention that the existing 02 drains at the IGI Airport have proven insufficient for discharging the huge amount of rain water from the airport which has often resulted in severe waterlogging in and around the IGI Airport during heavy rains and thus causing disruption and cancellation of flights for several days major inconvenience to the passengers. Heavy waterlogging even forced closure of the IGI Airport on several occasions. This also caused flooding in the adjoining Dwarka Sector 8, which houses several prominent Government organizations. During the
L-G's visits to Dwarka, the residents had also complained of crippling waterlogging in several areas.
Saxena said construction of the airport drain along with the creation of water bodies will be a big relief for the air travellers and the local residents of Dwarka. He said during the monsoon, the overflowing water from the airport as well as from the streets of Dwarka could be channelized to these water bodies. This project will also ensure hassle-free movement of delegates and dignitaries visiting the national Capital during the monsoon months for the G-20 Summit next year.
The airport drain will be capable of discharging 70 CuM of water per second during the peak rains. The drain would start from inside the IGI Airport premises, pass beneath the Railway tracks adjoining the airport boundary in Dwarka Sector-8 and would connect to DDA's Trunk Drain — 2 (TD-2) that would further channelize the rain water to Najafgarh Drain. While the construction of drain within the airport premises will be done by the airport operator DIAL; the Northern Railway is constructing a culvert over the railway land and the remaining construction work will be carried out by DDA. The airport drain will be 20 meter wide and will have a depth of 2 meter.
