Ghaziabad municipal body gets ready for monsoon, installs pumps at 16 points

Ghaziabad: Gearing up for the upcoming Monsoon season, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has installed pumps to flush out excess water during the rainy season at four major and 12 temporary points across the city, officials said on Monday, claiming that the desilting of drains is almost 95% complete.

According to officials of the corporation’s water works department, they identified four key waterlogging points at Gaushala railway crossing underpass, near river Hindon, start of the Hindon elevated road near UP-Gate, and one at Sahibabad industrial area.

“We have deployed pumps at four major underpass points and also at 12 other temporary points in the city where water logs during rains,” said KP Anand, general manager of the corporation’s water works’ department.

“Additionally, we have put up a net over the Gaushala underpass, as it has good depth and youngsters often jump in for a bath in the logged water during the monsoon. So, this has been done as a precautionary measure to prevent any accident,” he shared.

“The remaining works are going on and likely to be completed soon. The works have been hampered due to encroachment over certain drains. At the major Brij Vihar drain in Sahibabad, we have already deployed a dedicated poclain (excavating) machine costing about ₹80 lakh for regular cleaning and desilting,” said Mithilesh Kumar, corporation’s city health officer.

The city has 109 major drains, 335 medium and about 635 small drains under the corporation jurisdiction area, said officials, adding that the tender for desilting of drains was floated before the imposition of the Lok Sabha polls.

To be sure, the National Capital Region continues to reel under severe heatwave conditions. The India Meteorological Department in their June 19 forecast said that the monsoon is likely to hit Delhi-NCR around June 30.

Residents, however, said that every year the municipal body claims to have readied for monsoon season but people still face issues.

“There is issue of water-logging in Indirapuram during every monsoon season. It happens due to lack of connectivity of smaller drains to bigger drains; dumping of waste in drains by vendors and lack of cleaning below major ramps constructed over drains… we fear that it will happen this year too,” said Sanjay Singh, councillor from ward 100 of Shipra Sun City, Indirapuram.

Jugal Kishor, a resident of Shalimar Garden said that waterlogging has been a recurrent feature in Shalimar Garden, near DAV school and up to Apsara Border in Sahibabad.

“It is due to delay in desilting of drains, and also due to the fact that drains are overburdened and need to be widened as per growth in population. So, every monsoon, water overflows in streets and causes waterlogging,” he added.