Kejriwal bats for one body to manage city’s drainage

In a bid to overhaul the city’s drainage network and tackle waterlogging issues during the monsoon, the Delhi government has decided to appoint two consultants to prepare a blueprint to augment the existing system and monitor the implementation of the new drainage master plan, even as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday pushed for bringing the entire project under the purview of one agency.

Currently, there are 11 agencies in Delhi — the Public Works Department (PWD), three municipal corporations and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), among others — overseeing a network of natural and engineered stormwater drains.

“The problem of drainage and waterlogging affects every citizen of Delhi. If the Delhi government can look after the whole project, we will be able to overcome significant challenges and make the system world-class. A plan must be chalked out for this purpose so that requisite approvals can be sought. I have directed officials to make necessary preparations to seek approvals from all concerned agencies so that the Delhi government can adopt the responsibility of the whole project,” said Kejriwal, who reviewed the development of a new drainage master plan for Delhi, on Monday.

Delhi can be primarily divided into three large drainage basins — Najafgarh basin, Trans-Yamuna basin and Barapullah basin. Explaining the role of the consultants, a government spokesperson said, “One consultant will look after the Najafgarh Basin. The second consultant will look after the Trans-Yamuna and Barapullah basins. They will prepare the blueprints for drainage systems and monitor the implementation.”

The work on updating the city’s drainage masterplan from 1976 still remains a work in progress. In 2009, the then lieutenant governor, Tejendra Khanna, asked the civic agencies and all stakeholders to prepare a new master plan for Delhi’s watershed and drainage system. However, after finding the “Drainage Master Plan” prepared by IIT-Delhi “generic”, the government had last year appointed PWD as the nodal agency for the implementation of the project and asked it to turn the IIT report’s recommendations into actionable intervention points to solve waterlogging problems.