24×7 monitoring among Delhi govt’s measures for flood control

“Today there was a flood control apex body meeting where precautionary measures taken by different government bodies were discussed,” said Bharadwaj. Officials of various government bodies, including the Revenue Department, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Delhi Cantonment Board, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Traffic Police, Irrigation and Flood Control Department, and PWD were in attendance at the meeting.

The Ministers announced that the Irrigation and Flood Control Department on Friday set up a 24×7 flood control room at the East Delhi District Magistrate office. “Officials from the DDA, MCD, and NDMC will be deployed here 24×7, including people from all relevant departments and services such as BSES, Delhi Jal Board, TATA Power and Health Department,” said Atishi.

The flood control room will enable real-time data monitoring of discharge from the Hathnikund Barrage, which receives the Yamuna River water from the Haryana government.

“If there is a release of more than one lakh cusecs of water from the Hathnikund barrage, the relief and rescue operations will begin immediately. Steps to evacuate people from the Yamuna floodplains will be taken and the relief camps will be set up,” said Atishi. The Minister added that the apex body meeting reviewed the flood relief and rescue equipment, assessed the inventory, tracked the status of the deployed equipment and discussed the steps for flood relief, evacuation, and control.

Among the steps taken to tackle a flood-like situation, the Ministers counted regular review of the desilting work to prevent waterlogging in the city and opening of all the ITO barrage gates.

Bharadwaj added that pilot cuts have been deployed wherever there has been island formation in the course of the Yamuna River, in Delhi. There were also directions given to the central agencies involved in construction activities along the river bed, to remove obstructions.