VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has begun taking precautionary measures to contain any threat of flash floods in the city during the Monsoon. In this regard, the civic body will spend around Rs 2.5 crore for cleaning of clogged drains, as part of the Monsoon preparedness plan by entrusting the works to the contractors after finalising tenders.
According to the VMC officials, the city has 1,302.6 km of drainage network. Out of which, 57.6 km are major drains and the remaining 1,245 km are medium and minor drains. Recently, the municipal corporation had launched a special drive to desilt major drains, cleaning of choked manholes, deploying additional pump sets and super sucker machines.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, VMC chief engineer M Prabhakar Rao said that the civic body is evolving all necessary steps to ensure that the city does not come to a standstill during the Monsoon.
Usually, the rainwater gets stagnated for almost one to two hours on the roads near Moghalrajpuram, Jammi Chettu Centre, Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road, Nirmala Convent Junction, Panja Centre, KT Road, Nizam Gate, Railway underpass bridges near Kaleswara Rao Market and Rajiv Gandhi Park.
To avoid such situations this year, the corporation has begun work before the onset of the Monsoon over the city. Besides that, the corporation has also formed Monsoon emergency teams in three administrative circles-mobile monsoon, mini-mobile monsoon, zonal emergency and static labour teams.