Civic body launches drain-cleaning drive ahead of rains

Ludhiana: Just before the last monsoon of the incumbent regime, the Ludhiana civic body is pulling all stops to desilt all major sewer lines of the city with the help of super-suction machines. After allocating tenders for desilting of 40km of sewerage length, the civic body now decides to spend Rs 8.03 crore on the desilting of more sewer lines in the city ahead of the monsoon season.The civic body officials have claimed that the Supreme Court had prohibited manual scavenging. Consequently, all desilting and cleaning operations must be executed mechanically using specialized high-efficiency equipment. To streamline operations, the govt had previously empanelled nine firms for the task. . The officials shared that initial work orders were successfully allocated to consenting agencies, and a high-level review meeting was held at Chandigarh on April 30.During this meeting, the remaining empanelled contractors formally expressed their inability to deploy additional machinery or scale up operations to meet the comprehensive cleaning demands of the civic body. Keeping in mind the critical public health and infrastructure importance of completing the remaining desilting work before seasonal variations impact the city, the senior authorities have directed the issuance of this expression of interest.The pending desilting operations have been divided into two major operational clusters/proposals based on several factors. In first proposal, major stretches included are Police Colony Chowk to Jamalpur Chowk, Jamalpur Chowk to Veer Palace Chowk, Vishwakarma Chowk to Overlock Road (storm sewer), Ram Sharnam Chowk to Garg Optical, and associated ward lines spanning diameters from 8inches to 24inches at the cost of Rs 4.68 crore.In the second group major stretches included are Tajpur Road to Shani Mandir, Veer Palace Chowk to Petrol Pump, Star Road Chowk to Daba Police Chowk, Dandi Swami Chowk to Bus Stand via Bharat Nagar Chowk, and associated ward areas with diameters ranging from 8inches to 24inches at the cost of Rs 3.35 crore.A senior MC official, while confirming the same, said, “We need to clean the sewer lines not only before the rainy season, but also after the monsoon, therefore, the tender is for one year. After the rainy season, desilting is required more because sewer lines get filled with sand.” He said they want to clean all the sewer lines in the city with super suction machines.Sources, meanwhile, have raised question marks on this second tender that when nine firms were already hired then why new tenders were floated and if the new firms would quote a lesser rate then whether the officials would cancel previous tender.The residents have demanded regular desilting of sewer lines to avoid water logging and sewer overflow. Resident of Shivpuri Richa Sharma said, “The desilting of the sewer lines should be a permanent feature because it will help in improving the sewer system. In many areas the sewer system collapses in the rainy season and then there is flooding in the residential areas adding to their woes.”Another resident from Haibowal Anup Kumar said, through media they came to know about civic body identifying the 142 low lying areas where during the rainy season, waterlogging or even flooding is witnessed almost every year and most of these areas are located near Buddha Dariya, but whether the civic body has found out any measures to avoid this situation this year. He added that the authorities only wanted to save their skin as this was an election year and flooding in the rainy season could spoil their game.