Will take few more days to clear all damaged trees from Delhi roads: Civic agencies

To clear the mess and to facilitate smooth traffic movement, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Public Works Department (PWD) have been working to clear the roads.

A fallen tree inside a local market in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Civic agencies cleared some roads in the New Delhi area by Wednesday, but trees were still found lying on the roadside at many arterial roads such as Mansingh Road, KG Marg, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Marg, India Gate circle, opposite Hyderabad House, Copernicus Marg, Baroda House, Sangli Apartments, near Maharashtra Sadan, Lodhi Road, Lodhi Colony, Meharchand Market etc.

At some of these locations, agencies removed fallen trees from the main roads and put them on the footpath to facilitate vehicle users but it has inconvenienced pedestrians.

At Lodhi Colony, near Block 7, the road that goes towards Khanna Market and II Avenue was completely blocked by a huge tree lying in the middle of the road. Commuters and vehicles were seen taking a U-turn from the stretch.

The other road going towards Meharchand Market was also blocked by a huge tree but small vehicles like auto-rickshaw, cars and two wheelers managed to navigate the area by using a small gap between the trees and its branches.

A damaged car after an uprooted tree fell on it due to the thunderstorm, in New Delhi (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

At Bhagwan Das Road Red Light opposite the Supreme Court, more than 60 cars and three wheelers were seen moving at a snail’s pace as a crane removed a tree that was blocking the roads. Six trees were lying on SP Mukherjee Marg.

“It is not an easy job that can be completed in just a few hours. These are heavy trees which can only be removed following procedure. First you have to cut the leaves, separate the dry leaves and wood etc…Almost all the staff, from engineering department to horticulture department, has been working on the ground since last night,” an NDMC official said. “Around 60-70 per cent of roads have been cleared and we hope the remaining roads will also be cleared in one or two days,” the official added.

A tree fallen in front of residential colony in Copernicus Marg, in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Another NDMC official said that first priority is being given to VIP routes and Lutyens Delhi, especially areas where foreign delegation and minister movements are high. “The other roads will be cleared in two days,” said an official.

Meanwhile, a senior MCD officer said, “Almost all the staff and equipment have been deployed to clear the NDMC area. First, we cleared Ashoka Road and we were about to start the operations in our area but we got a call to clear Ferozshah Road. It will take at least 5 more days to clear all the roads.”

The MCD cleared Ashoka Road, Ferozshah Road, Rajendra Prasad and Bhai Vir Singh Road, said the official.

Apart from MCD, NDMC is also taking help from organisations such as NDRF, NHAI, NBCC, fire department and other disaster management departments to clear the area, said an NDMC official. The NDMC is also planning formation of a ‘quick response team’ to study the causes and provide solutions to such incidents in future. It will also start a compensatory tree plantation drive by planting 10 trees for each damaged tree.

“I have discussed the matter with chairman Bhupinder Singh Bhalla and advised him on a compensatory tree plantation drive where NDMC can plant 10 trees as compensation for each damaged tree. I have also asked officials to form a coordination group to intensify arrangements to deal with such incidents or natural disasters such as waterlogging during the rainy season in the future,” NDMC member Kuljeet Chahal said. He also wrote to the chairman regarding the same.

“At least a 100 field workers and the horticulture team are working on the ground to lift the trees. Senior officers like S Chelliah (director, horticulture-north) and Rais Ali (director, horticulture-south) are directly monitoring the situation and assisting in the removal of trees and branches from the roads in the New Delhi area,” Chahal added.

In NDMC area, 77 trees were uprooted and 57 branches were damaged. While MCD received around 157 calls of fallen trees, PWD received around 120 calls related to tree damage, and traffic police 297 calls. The major areas where trees were damaged in large numbers are CP, Barakhamba, Tolstoy Marg, Talkatora Stadium, Lodhi Colony, Lodhi Road, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Raj Ghat, Daryaganj among others.