NEW DELHI: The onset of monsoon has pushed residents of Mayur Vihar 2 area out of the frying pan and into the fire. The blocked sewer line passing beside the service road next to the Delhi Meerut Expressway plasters the roads with the sludge and dirt which often spill over to the streets. The Municipal Corporation, to make things worse, has now dismantled the footpath covering the drain, to clean it up.
The one metre–long recently remodelled footpath has been dug at five places, forcing pedestrians to commute on the main road with heavy traffic.
“The footpath has been completely dug out to clean the drain. This shows the lack of proper planning while constructing the road. If we want clean drains then we have to get rid of the footpath, if we want to have a designated space to walk on the road then the drain will not be clean and the sewage will spill to our streets and homes. This is very sorry state of affairs,” said Mrinalini, local resident of Mayur Vihar.
However, the local area councillor of BJP Bhavna Malick has defended the move saying it was necessary.
“This drain was not cleaned for the last 15 years. It is after my rigorous efforts that the amount was sanctioned and the work has begun on the cleaning drive. I was getting a lot of complaints about blocked sewer from the people. The footpath had to be broken as it was covering the drain. Without digging it out, the work would not have been possible.”
Another major problem faced by the locals is that the only pedestrian crossing among the three underpasses remains inundated. School children and other commuters walk through a line of bricks to cross the bridge bridge. At night the situation gets worse as the underpass remains dark with no arrangements for light.”
“I take the route through the underpass to reach home after school. We step on bricks and cross it as there is always the dirty water flooding the area,” said Himanshu Kumar, a class VI student at Bal Bhavan Public School.
Delhi-Meerut Expressway
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the Delhi-Meerut Expressway which is expected to bring down the time to commute between national capital and Meerut to 45 minutes.