Showers bring city to a standstill
4 July 2014 12:32 AM GMT
The first monsoon shower in the national Capital brought relief to Delhiites but the commuters experienced a harrowing time with long traffic snarls across the city on Thursday.
Soon after the heavy rainfall, the capital got caught in long snarls due to water logging and non-functional traffic signals that went on blinker modes. Vasant Vihar, Moolchand, South-Extension, Outer Ring Road, Okhla, Moti Bagh, Ashram Chowk and parts of east Delhi remained flooded and added to the woes of commuters. Further, traffic problems were also reported from Dhaula Kuan, Mehrauli, Modi Mill, Nehru Place, Raja Garden flyover, ISBT Kashmere Gate and Vikas Marg near ITO. Traffic personnel failed to update any status on their official website on Facebook to help commuters to avoid congestions in the affected areas.
Civic bodies’ tall claims fall short
The tall claims of civic bodies — MCDs and PWD — to have cleaned drains for the forthcoming monsoon months was out in the open after Thursday’s showers in the city which left the streets in a miserable state of affairs leading to water logging and throwing traffic out of gear. Every year, each municipal corporation spends crores of rupees on sanitation works which also includes desilting of drains. For example, South Corporation alone spent Rs 445 crores on sanitation in 2013-14 and has allocated Rs 491 crore for the same in 2014-15. However, it seems that the money is not being put to good use. The streets get water-logged after light showers. The civic officials blame water-logging on the ‘structural’ defect in the locality.
A senior municipal officer said: ‘The amount of waste Delhi generates is massive. We do our best to contain water logging. We only look after small drains, which later merge with bigger drains. These are not desilted properly and hence the waste comes back to smaller drains that lead to water logging.’ The East and South Corporations have so far desilted 67,067 and 49,878 metric tonnes of waste respectively from their drains. Interestingly, East and North Corporations have not received even a single case of water-logging, while South Corporation registered one complaint.
‘We came to know that there was water-logging in some areas. But most people do not know the telephone helpline that we run for complaints of water-logging. Therefore, we didn’t receive any complaint,’ said Y S Mann, spokesperson for North Corporation.
Soon after the heavy rainfall, the capital got caught in long snarls due to water logging and non-functional traffic signals that went on blinker modes. Vasant Vihar, Moolchand, South-Extension, Outer Ring Road, Okhla, Moti Bagh, Ashram Chowk and parts of east Delhi remained flooded and added to the woes of commuters. Further, traffic problems were also reported from Dhaula Kuan, Mehrauli, Modi Mill, Nehru Place, Raja Garden flyover, ISBT Kashmere Gate and Vikas Marg near ITO. Traffic personnel failed to update any status on their official website on Facebook to help commuters to avoid congestions in the affected areas.
Civic bodies’ tall claims fall short
The tall claims of civic bodies — MCDs and PWD — to have cleaned drains for the forthcoming monsoon months was out in the open after Thursday’s showers in the city which left the streets in a miserable state of affairs leading to water logging and throwing traffic out of gear. Every year, each municipal corporation spends crores of rupees on sanitation works which also includes desilting of drains. For example, South Corporation alone spent Rs 445 crores on sanitation in 2013-14 and has allocated Rs 491 crore for the same in 2014-15. However, it seems that the money is not being put to good use. The streets get water-logged after light showers. The civic officials blame water-logging on the ‘structural’ defect in the locality.
A senior municipal officer said: ‘The amount of waste Delhi generates is massive. We do our best to contain water logging. We only look after small drains, which later merge with bigger drains. These are not desilted properly and hence the waste comes back to smaller drains that lead to water logging.’ The East and South Corporations have so far desilted 67,067 and 49,878 metric tonnes of waste respectively from their drains. Interestingly, East and North Corporations have not received even a single case of water-logging, while South Corporation registered one complaint.
‘We came to know that there was water-logging in some areas. But most people do not know the telephone helpline that we run for complaints of water-logging. Therefore, we didn’t receive any complaint,’ said Y S Mann, spokesperson for North Corporation.
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