NEW DELHI: Three days since a ‘severe thunderstorm’ ravaged Delhi with trees being uprooted at every other lane, civic agencies say that the lack of adequate machinery and manpower has delayed the clearing of key stretches. Trunks and branches are still lying obstructing traffic movement.
The stretches include mostly those in Lutyens’ Delhi with north of Rajpath, Lodhi Road, Copernicus Marg, India Gate circle, and Madhav Rao Scindia Marg, among others. Most of the incidents of trees uprooted were reported in New Delhi and central Delhi.
According to officials in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which caters to Lutyens’ Delhi, the operation that was launched on Monday evening is still going on and it will take a while before it’s completely cleared.
“Most of these stretches are VIP routes and need to be cleared at the earliest for protocol issues as well as smooth traffic movement. However, lack of machinery needed to cut down the heavy and long branches, as well as JCBs, trucks and labour required to clear them are all in short supply This massive disaster has caught us unprepared; as such a large-scale devastation of trees in a single day has not been seen in the history of Delhi. We are far behind in terms of having the infrastructure required to deal with such a situation,” said a senior NDMC official, who didn’t wish to be named.
The NDMC has roped in a slew of departments to help them in the operation including the MCD, PWD, National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire services and other disaster management agencies. NDMC’s newly-appointed chairman B S Bhalla had on Tuesday asked other agencies to lend logistics support to clear the roads, said officials.
So many other arterial roads including Ferozshah Road, Baroda House, road from Patel Chowk to India Gate, Harshal Mathur Lane, some part of Ashoka, Road, Meherchand Market and Bhagwan Das (BD) road, among others are still to be cleared. At Lodhi Road, vehicles were seen taking a U-turn because a large tree was still lying on the road covering half the carriageway. Similarly, at BD road, motorists had a tough time navigating their way because of huge branches covering a part of the stretch.
“The labour engaged with the horticulture department hasn’t gone back home since the storm struck down trees on Monday. Since they don’t have the required tools, there is so much they can do manually. Every branch and log of the tree has to be cut into smaller pieces and assessed for its value. It is a painstaking and a long-drawn exercise, which could have been much more efficient with the right kind of infrastructure available,” the official said.