Is city ready for monsoon? Early showers expose MC

The rain in the past two days,though continuous had not been of high intensity. During the monsoons last year the heavy downpour had kept the roads flooded. A similar situation is likely to persist this year.

MC Chief Engineer S S Bida says that in the wake of preparations for monsoon,the civic body was focusing on the cleaning up of road gullies. “We had started a programme to clear road gullies. This will continue and by June 25 a second round of checks would also be completed. The road gullies are being cleared of all blockages,” he says.

Bida says that water was cleared from roads within an hour after the rain stopped. This shows that the storm water drainage is operational. The minor glitches would be removed before monsoon.

Another reason for water logging is stated to be the increasing concretization. With pavements and medians along the road laid with paver blocks,surface run offs increase.

Instead of water being absorbed by the ground,it flows on to the roads. The MC has time and again mulled the idea of having permeable tiles on pavements,it has still not been done.