NEW DELHI: Rain or no rain, the Pul Prahladpur Underpass on Mehrauli-Badarpur road remains clogged due to the low capacity and ill-maintained trunk line by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The sewage drainage not only overflows during the monsoon season but also floods the road, putting the commuters and the pedestrians in a havoc situation, claimed the PWD officials.
To resolve the waterlogging issue, the PWD has floated tenders for constructing another pump house on the road with an additional motor pump of 800 horsepower (hp) to remove the accumulated water during the monsoon season.
However, the senior PWD officials working on the project said that the new storm water drain will resolve the issue for a brief period and then the situation will again come to point zero, if the DJB does not redevelop its sewage drain.
“We already have a pump house with a 500 hp motor pump installed to remove the accumulated water. The department is further planning to install one more storm water drain with a larger capacity. But, despite having the capacity to clear 60 lakh litre water per hour, the new pumps will only help to get away with the waterlogging issue for a year, if the DJB does not increase the capacity of the sewage drains,” said a senior PWD official.
The official added, “There are five manholes near the pump house and the sewage waste from it overflows into the main road’s storm water drain. These manholes managed by DJB overflows daily. The situation gets worse during the rainy season.” Chief Engineer of Central zone Ajay Gupta said, “I will have to look into the ground reality, then only I can comment on anything on this issue.”
Roads blocked due to water clogging
The entire stretch of about 800 metres was filled with water, forcing the traffic police to close the road. Officials said that the underpass is located between two slums —Sonia Gandhi camp and RJD colony. There are about five manholes on this stretch managed by the DJB and it overflows into the main road’s drain. Due to this, the entire Prahladpur underpass gets heavily clogged. DJB needs to redevelop their sewage drain and need to stop puncturing the storm water drain to release the effluent waste.