Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday, elaborately reviewed the progress of the Delhi Drainage Master Plan and said that the Delhi Government is fully committed to finding and implementing solutions for each and every problem faced by the people of Delhi.
He was attending the review meeting held at the Delhi Secretariat regarding the Delhi Drainage Master Plan.
The CM said that Delhi will soon get freedom from waterlogging as work is being expedited on Delhi’s Drainage Master Plan.
He further said that necessary changes suggested by IIT Delhi will be implemented to bolster the drainage system of Delhi and it will be further enhanced to deal with heavy rainfall.
The CM instructed the officers to implement solutions on the ground level in order to make the drainage system foolproof and take up specific projects to implement solutions for fixing slopes of drains, connecting storm drains to the larger drainage system, and all such problems.
He said that consultants will be roped into planning and presenting project reports for all drainage lines to expedite the implementation of the projects.
Besides the Chief Minister, Water Minister Satyendar Jain, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Vice-Chairman Raghav Chadha and the Chief Secretary, along with the senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.
Senior officials of the Delhi Jal Board and other departments presented detailed reports to Chief Minister. Arvind Kejriwal gave necessary recommendations and guidelines to the officers to curb the problem of waterlogging in the drainage system.
He said, “The drainage system of Delhi will be further bolstered and made fool-proof. Officers should conduct studies and find solutions for each and every stormwater drain and sewer system.
“Every gap in the drainage system of Delhi has to be plugged. If there’s a fallacy in the slope of a drain, it needs to be fixed. If any drain is meeting a dead end, it needs to be corrected. A proper plan should be chalked out for connecting smaller drains with the large drainage lines. Specific projects should be taken up for fixing each problem.
“To further identify and plug all the problems with the drainage systems of Delhi, consultants will be roped in who will provide their expertise in further enhancing the drainage system.”
It is noteworthy that there are about 2846 drains in Delhi and their length is about 3692 km. The majority of these drains are with the Public Works Department (PWD). Delhi is divided into three major natural drainage basins.
These are Trans Yamuna, Barapullah and Najafgarh. In addition, there are also some very small drainage basins, the Aruna Nagar and Chandrawal, which drain directly into the Yamuna.