Delhi rains: July test passed, Minto Bridge sinks again

NEW DELHI: The downpour on Saturday was so heavy that the newly heralded symbol of PWD’s efficiency in flood control this season, Minto Bridge, went under like every year.
The water level sensors, CCTV cameras with live feed to the flood control room, additional pumps and a new drainage line proved no match for the heavy rain on Saturday morning and the bridge, now barricaded by police to prevent entry of cars, went back to being synonymous with Delhi’s waterlogging woes.

A Public Works Department official said that the area was cordoned off for around three-and-a-half hours after the water level below the bridge started rising around 7am. “The rain started around 12.30-1am and there was no waterlogging through the night. The problem started around 7am when the sewage line got overwhelmed,” claimed the official.
“The sewage line that carries the runoff from the Paharganj locality began overflowing and began deluging the site. However, we were able to ‘de-water’ the area within 2-3 hours."
The water level under the bridge reached a high of 350mm on Saturday morning and the carriageways were closed as a precautionary measure.
Whenever rainwater accumulates at Minto Bridge, there have been numerous instances in previous years of vehicles, even those as large as buses, getting stuck. In July last year, a 56-year-old man drowned in the pool of water there.
To prevent such accidents, PWD had deployed three divers at Minto Bridge and Pul Prahladpur in south Delhi, where another drowning claimed a life earlier this year.
The terrain of the localities and the existence of a common sewage/drainage system at these points render them prone to waterlogging.
As an interim solution, PWD laid down an additional drainage line at Minto Bridge to divert the runoff along Minto Road towards Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, but this measure also proved inadequate on Saturday.
As the only viable long-term solution for this vulnerable spot, PWD needs to create an alternative drainage system.
All city underpasses suffer waterlogging after rain spells due to the lack of a separate drainage system.
The nearby localities and unauthorised colonies, due to the lack of a proper drainage system, discharge wastewater into the low-lying bowls around the underpasses.
Since the latter are not designed to drain awaylarge volumes of water, they go under if there is heavy precipitation, highlighting the need for a massive overhaul of the drainage.
On Saturday, all major underpasses were submerged after the city recorded 138.8mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.
These included the underpasses at Moolchand, Vivek Vihar, Mehram Nagar, Rajokri, Dwarka, Mother Dairy, Pul Prahladpur, Tilak Bridge, Welcome and Mankey Bridge. Ironically enough, a boat was deployed at the Pul Prahladpur underpass.