This monsoon, Hyderabad less prepared?

Only 42% desiliting works could be completed as on June 1 when compared to last year’s 55.87%
A man shields himself with an umbrella during heavy rain at Banjara Hills, in Hyderabad  on Sunday | r satish babu
A man shields himself with an umbrella during heavy rain at Banjara Hills, in Hyderabad on Sunday | r satish babu

HYDERABAD: Moonsoon is round the corner and denizens better be ready for the annual string of related issues. Urban flooding which happens year after year is most likely to take the limelight this year too. The authorities here are not only underprepared but also fared worse in terms of pre-monsoon preparedness compared to previous years.

As on June 1, only about 42 per cent desilting works could be completed by the Greater Hyderabad Municpal Corporation. This is when compared to 55.87 per cent works completed as on the same date last year.

Every year, about Rs 50 crore is spent for desilting works in the city. During previous years, tenders were called during summer and a deadline of June 15 was fixed to desilt the storm water drains.  However in 2018, tenders were called for desilting for a period of one year, and this demands that contractors remove silt when ever accumulated.

Last year, some 300 water stagnation points or Road Vulnerable Points were rectified, however, the problem continue to persist even today.

This year, about 400 water stagnation points or road vulnerable points are identified and categorised as short term, medium term and long term and all of them require `150 crore. Over a dozen chronic and major water logging points which require remodeling of drains have been proposed to be taken up at a cost of `65 crore to `70 crore.

GHMC officials said that to address the critical vulnerable points, SW are being remodelled, old narrow pipelines are being replaced with wider pipelines for easy flow of rain water and regular desilting of critical points is carried out.GHMC officials were asked to fix water logging point works on priority.

GHMC officials admitted about the poor progress of the desilting works in the city, as per the latest figures, west zone tops the list in poor desilting works, which is about 21.55 percent followed by  North zone (21.61 percent), East zone (41.83 percent), Central zone (43.21 percent) and South zone (76.95 percent).

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