The monsoon men

It was now time for Tomar,along with his long-time friend and colleague,Chief Engineer Ish Kumar,to decide. The flood control department,ever since its inception in 1963,has been headed by two chief engineers,who remain at the helm of affairs at least for the three monsoon months.

The two colleagues spent a night at their office in Kashmere Gate pondering over repercussions of the water that was to reach Delhi in another 72 hours. Having checked the levels at various drains,which were rising due to incessant rainfall in the city,they identified the Jahangirpuri drain as the most dangerous.

Time was less,and the two now had to get something very important done. “It could have been a flood worse than 1978. With backflow from the river into the Jahangirpuri drain,the whole of North Delhi would have been submerged. We made sure the height of the gates at Jahangirpuri drain was increased by at least a foot. Getting labour was also difficult,it was Eid holiday. But the job was done on a war footing,in 48 hours,” said Tomar.

Fortunately,the embankment was not breached this time,The officers had calculated well the vengeance with which the water was gushing towards the city. The panic button was pressed once again in the next 10 days,when rainfall in the upper catchment areas meant more discharge into the river in Delhi. But matters took a turn for the worse when it rained heavily in the river’s catchment in Delhi as well.

“This time we had left it to God. There wasn’t much anybody could do when 7.44 lakh cusecs is released into the river. Now was the time when the city was flooded with heavy rainfall,and the river could not take any outfall. The drains were full,and so was the river. Where else would the water go?” asked Kumar,still unsure how Delhi survived the worst floods ever.

On September 22,when the water reached Delhi ,the level at the Old Yamuna Bridge rose to 207.05 metres,2.22 metres above the danger level. And at the Jahangirpuri drain,the water levels breached the original height of the gates by two full inches.

“The decision to increase the height of those gates had saved the city. At least 70 pumps were then installed to continuously pump out water from the drain to give a breather to the water logged North Delhi,” said Tomar.

“The best thing to have happened to the city for years to come is the over 1.5 months of groundwater recharge. And what a spectacle it is to look at the flowing river now,which had been a drain for years,” the engineers said on a happy note.