Waterlogging to traffic: Soon, one centre likely to monitor all issues facing Delhi

According to sources, the centre’s first task will be ensuring the city is not brought to its knees by waterlogging-related woes just like in the monsoon of 2023.

“The Delhi government is likely to take over NDMC’s ICCC before the onset of the monsoon season later this year. It will progressively become the focal point as far as monitoring the entire city through a network of lakhs of CCTV cameras is concerned,” a senior member of Delhi’s Council of Ministers said.

“Representatives from various government agencies such as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Public Works Department, and Delhi Police among others will be added to the current deployment of NDMC employees at the ICCC to spot and resolve issues from waterlogging, traffic congestion, monitoring law and order to sanitation,” the minister added.

In her Budget speech, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced a proposal to establish an ICCC for real-time monitoring of other significant aspects related to the city such as environmental parameters — air and water quality, noise levels — and waste management to improve environmental governance and public health.

The CM had also announced Rs 15 crore for developing a ‘Delhi 311 App’ for effective redressal of grievances under various departments of the Delhi government, similar to the NDMC’s 311. She also announced a call centre under the ‘Delhi 311’ app, for receiving complaints after integration with the Delhi government helpline number 1031.

“Former Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar first mooted the idea of an integrated ICCC for the entire city; it is more feasible now given the shared interface between the BJP governments at the Centre and Delhi,” a senior government official said.

Admitting that Delhi was “highly vulnerable to various (environmental) disasters”, Gupta had added that the Capital lacks a unified command and control centre to coordinate disaster response among various agencies. She proposed a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to provide a single emergency number for better crisis management, allocating Rs 30 crore to set up Command Control Centres and an EOC under the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.