Drain Desilting Progress Lags as May Deadline Looms Large

With less than a week left to meet the May 31 deadline to complete pre-monsoon desilting of drains, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has completed less than half the work on the city's major drains—raising serious concerns about waterlogging once the monsoon hits.

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI:

The capital has already received a grim preview of what's to come. On Sunday, several parts of the city were inundated following a spell of torrential early morning rain, exposing the gap between official claims and on-ground preparations.

According to the MCD's latest status report dated May 23, just 42.82% of the desilting work has been completed across 800 large drains spanning 530.82km. The target for phase one of the desilting drive, which began on January 1, was to clear 129,392.85 metric tonnes (MT) of silt by the end of May.

"So far, 55,410.58MT of silt has been removed from these drains, and work is currently in progress at 628 of the 800 sites," a senior MCD official said.