RMC cleans drains near all schools, colleges to curb waterlogging during monsoon

Ranchi: To protect students, teachers and commuters from the perennial problem of waterlogging, mainly outside educational institutions, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has launched a pre-monsoon drive across the city.

Under the special initiative, a thorough desilting and cleaning operation will be carried out across all drains within a 500-metre radius of the approach roads to every school and college in the city. The move is aimed at ensuring an uninterrupted drainage network and preventing any waterlogging near campus gates once the rains arrive.

To guarantee effective execution and round-the-clock monitoring of the campaign, additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Kumar has constituted four dedicated teams, one for each municipal zone. These teams have been directed to survey all educational institutions in their jurisdictions, and oversee the immediate clearance of clogged drains and accumulated silt.

Kumar said, “An initial survey was done to identify all the spots. The teams have been asked to re-verify them. Work has started and we have asked the teams to ensure its completion before monsoon hits.”

To avoid inconvenience, the civic body mandated that the silt extracted from the drains must be transported away by the next day. Additionally, sanitation workers have been instructed to spray bleaching powder at the cleaned sites to keep vector-borne diseases and infections at bay.

Infrastructure repair is also being included in the drive. RMC has ordered that any concrete slabs removed during the desilting process must be reinstalled immediately. In areas where drainage slabs are broken or missing altogether, new ones are to be laid on priority before monsoon. To mitigate any resource crunch, a fleet of heavy machinery, including super suckers, excavators and specialised desilting machines, is being deployed.

“The school-centric drive is a critical component of the broader preparedness plan to provide students with a safe, hygienic and hassle-free commute during the monsoon,” Kumar said.