Irrigation Dept To Manage All 22 Major Drains In City

New Delhi: All major 22 drains in the city will be handed over to the Irrigation and Flood Control Department (I&FC) of Delhi govt by the end of May for better maintenance and operation, a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official aware of the matter said.In an order issued by Delhi’s urban development department on April 29, a copy of which TOI has seen, it was stated that by May 31, ‘all concerned departments will hand over the 22 open drains to the I&FC department’.

The move has come in the wake of Delhi High Court's directions on April 8 to Delhi govt to assign the management of all open drains in the city to one agency to streamline drainage management, mitigate flooding and improve water in the Yamuna.A Delhi govt official said this would be a comprehensive exercise. “As per the court’s order, the I&FC will submit a report which will include assessment of the quantity of silt in these drains as well as an action plan for desilting,” stated the official.The court has directed completion of desilting at 21 drains by Dec 31, 2024, and de-silting of Najafgarh drain by June 2025.“Work is on for preparation of the drainage master plan. Regarding Najafgarh basin which covers 63% of drainage area, DPR will be submitted by Sept-end,” said the official.“However, the projects planned or already undertaken on these 22 drains this year will continue (such as installing STPs). The departments maintaning these drains will desilt them this year. From next year, I&FC will carry out the desilting task from the funds provided by state govt,” the official said.Of the 22 drains, 15 belong to MCD, and the agency is at present busy desilting them before the monsoon arrives. Drains belonging to MCD include Maharani Bagh, Taimur Nagar, Barapulla Nullah (where desilting is being done by the I&FC department), Khyberpass, Chandrawal, Metcalfe House, Vijay Ghat, Delhi Gate, Qudsia Bagh, Aruna Nagar and Mori Gate, among others. All these are over one metre deep.The MCD also shares three drains with the New Delhi Municipal Council, which are part of the list, such as Nullah No. 12 (also called Sen Nursing Home Nullah), 12 A, and 14, and are up to 5 meters deep.Then there are four drains belonging to other departments, including Shahdara, Jaitpur and Najafgarh of I&FC, and part of Okhla Barrage that belongs to UP irrigation department.“All these drains have outfall into the Yamuna, and the initiative aims to treat the water before releasing it into the river. Prior to the order, departments also had a meeting under the chairmanship of the chief secretary on April 18. While I&FC will be the nodal agency for these 22 drains, the handover process will be monitored by respective DMs, and there is a plan to geotag them and give their current status,” an official said.Drains and roads are managed by several agencies such as MCD, PWD, I&FC, and the NHAI, and this results in delay in desilting and recurring waterlogging.The high court also directed Delhi Development Authority (DDA) last month to remove encroachments on the Yamuna floodplain to mitigate waterlogging. DDA has issued notices to agencies to ensure the removal of construction waste and debris by June 30. DDA had appointed nodal officers to check the dumping of waste.
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