A 30-yr roadmap for overhaul of drains

The Delhi government on Friday unveiled a ₹57,000-crore drainage master plan, the first such comprehensive overhaul in nearly 50 years, to prepare the Capital for intensifying monsoons, rising climate pressures and relentless urbanisation.

- Snehil Sinha

The plan, which will be implemented in five phases over the next five years, laid out a 30-year roadmap to strengthen the stormwater network, reduce waterlogging and build resilience against extreme rainfall events, officials said.

The plan divides Delhi into three basins -- Najafgarh, Barapullah and Trans-Yamuna -- redesigned using modern hydraulic modelling and engineering interventions.

Once it is implemented, the city's drainage capacity will increase nearly threefold from 25mm per hour of rainfall to 70mm per hour, thus factoring in an additional 11% rise in rainfall intensity linked to climate change.

Officials said the new design, which is the result of an extensive feasibility studies and field surveys by a team of consultants and experts, aims to anticipate the future rather than patch up the present. "The idea is to design drains not just for today's rainfall but for projected intensities linked to climate change," an official aware of the plan said.

The master plan envisages real-time monitoring of drains through smart sensors feeding into a central control hub, allowing authorities to anticipate choke points before they escalate into full-blown flooding. A dedicated operations workforce equipped with modern machinery will be tasked with desilting and cleaning drains, ensuring that blockages no longer choke the system. Flood mitigation measures for low-lying areas will include high-capacity pumping stations, stricter desilting protocols and urgent upgradation of critical drains.