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Delhi enclave clogged with sewage, govt says will fix all problems in 18 months
To divert the flow of rainwater which now gets collected in the area itself, the Irrigation and Flood Control department will spend Rs 220 crore on a 4.5-km-long trunk drain.
Sharma Enclave, a notified unauthorised colony, has been inundated for the last nine months, residents say. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
The Delhi government said on Thursday that it has chalked out a plan for building a “well-laid” sewage system in the colonies of Northwest Delhi’s Kirari, where sewage water has been flooding houses and lanes for around nine months.
On Thursday, The Indian Express had reported that residents of Sharma Enclave at Mubarakpur, which falls under Kirari Assembly constituency, move around waterlogged streets in gumboots, when they step out to buy essentials or to go to work, with children often missing school.
A few residents have also left their houses.
Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Singh Sahib said the sewage lines will be laid within the next six months and the area will be free from waterlogging in one-and-a-half years.
The sewage discharged from the houses will be diverted for treatment to a 25-MGD sewage treatment plant (STP) in Rohini, the minister said.
He added that three sewage pumping stations will be built in Bhagya Vihar, Prem Nagar and Pratap Vihar to carry the sewage water to the STP.
To divert the flow of rainwater which now gets collected in the area itself, the Irrigation and Flood Control department will spend Rs 220 crore on a 4.5-km-long trunk drain. It will carry rainwater to a supplementary drain.
“A detailed project report has been prepared and the tenders are in process. It should be completed within one-and-a-half years,” Singh said, adding it will cover 1,520 acres of catchment area.
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The Delhi Development Authority, which had begun work on a 7.2 km drain from Kiraki to Rithala in 2020 at the cost of Rs 250 crore, will complete it soon, Singh said.
He alleged that the previous government lacked a comprehensive approach to deal with such issues.
He claimed that local MLAs were interested only in commissions.
“Water gets collected in the area as it is low-lying. This is shocking… around 10 lakh people stay in the Kirari constituency and not even a single sewer line was laid until 2020,” Singh said, blaming the AAP government for severe waterlogging in the area.
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“After the Lieutenant Governor’s intervention in 2020, the Delhi Jal Board had issued a tender worth Rs 480 crore for 114 unauthorised colonies, including Sharma Enclave, which falls under Mubarakpur Dabas. This should have been completed in December 2024,” he added.
Singh further said that a drain being built by the Public Works department at a cost of Rs 183 crore on the Rohtak Road is nearing completion.
Meanwhile, in Sharma Enclave, a Rs 9.4-crore drain project aimed at local development and outfall connectivity has also been planned, officials said.
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