MCD begins monsoon desilting

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has targeted to remove 1.41 lakh metric tonnes of silt from drains by June 30 as part of its annual desilting exercise from city drains ahead of the monsoon, officials said on Friday.

The civic body has allocated a budget of approximately Rs 36 crore for the exercise this year, covering around 545 km of drains that are wider than four feet in the national capital, they said.

According to the officials, about 16 per cent of the desilting work has been completed so far, while most of the tenders for the project have already been awarded.

MCD’s department of environment management services committee chairman Sandeep Kapoor said that the silt removed in the city is being tracked on a daily basis, and the corporation is trying to fast-track the exercise.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to achieve our desilting targets in a timely manner, as work has been allocated and is being tracked, and officials have been instructed to adhere to the determined timeline,” Kapoor said, adding that debris collected on the side of the road is also being collected in a timely manner.

There are close to 13,000 drains with a depth of less than four feet, having a combined length of approximately 6,000 km, which are desilted throughout the year, the officials said.

MCD’s three-month desilting drive spans 40 divisions; 793 major drains targeted, with silt to be cleared and dumped weekly.