By IANS,
New Delhi: A day after heavy rains lashed the capital leading to chaos on the roads, the civic agencies and the Delhi government held several rounds of meetings Tuesday to discuss what needs to be done to prevent repeated flooding and traffic jams.
A concerned Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Tuesday inspected roads in the city to take stock of the situation following the heavy rains Monday evening.
Earlier, speaking to reporters she said: “Debris (due to construction at CWG sites) is also a big issue. By Aug 10, all the debris will be cleared.”
According to a government official, Dikshit, at a meeting pointed out that water-logging at various places resulted in a lot of hardship to people. The reason could be the ongoing construction activities related to Commonwealth Games projects, she added.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi held 10 meetings on a single day to discuss what went wrong on its part that led to water-logging and traffic snarls.
“The meeting was to review the situation in the city Monday evening. It was headed by Commissioner K.S. Mehra. We have decided to come out with a report on Monday’s rains. About 80 percent of the complaints were from other areas under various agencies like New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Central Public Works Department,” said Jagdish Magmain, chairman of MCD’s working committee.
He said the areas under MCD jurisdiction got flooded due to the failure of costly pumps.
Meanwhile, Delhi Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney told IANS: “MCD is not the only civic agency that takes care of Delhi. On Monday, Connaught Place, Ring Road, Aurobindo Marg were the most affected and these areas do not come under the MCD.”
“We have prepared well for the rains, but when sudden heavy showers come it takes at least an hour for the water to clear out,” he added.
The MCD has 107 permanent pumping stations, while 525 portable pumps are placed in 12 zones. It also has 14 high discharge mobile diesel engine pumps in some zones. Two super sucker machines are there to clean up the larger drains as also 51 machines to clear up drains.