Deadline for desilting of drains in NDMC areas to end soon

The desilting of drains in all six zones under North Delhi Municipal Corporation is yet to be completed even though only a month is left for end of the deadline set for it.
The total length of drains, having depth of less than four feet, was estimated at 646.092 km but as of today, a mere 65.6 km of them has been covered, according to the details provided in reply to a short notice presented before the NDMC House today by councillors Mahendra Nagpal, Shyam Bala and Poonam Bhardwaj.
The sanitation department admitted in its reply that the action plan required work to commence from August 2012 and end well before the monsoon on May 31, 2013.

As far as 229 drains with depth or width more than four feet are involved, the plan was to remove 13387.21 MT silt in the 10 month period.
According to details available, till date only 4323.52 MT silt has been disposed off.
The performance is particularly dismal in Rohini and Civil Lines zones where only seven and 39 per cent of silt have been removed respectively.
On the issue of dealing with areas where water logging is experienced during the monsoon, the sanitation department informed the House that since drains near main roads have been transferred to the PWD, it is no longer the responsibility of NDMC.

"We are ready to take over these drains if the PWD provides us with a budget along with it," said Leader of the House Mahendra Nagpal.