JOIN USCrores of rupees spent on desilting drains have little effect
Though government agencies have spent crores of rupees on removing silt from the shoulder drains and storm water drains and manholes, the recent rains have exposed the crumbling infrastructure in the City.
The heavy rains last week saw 133 mm of rainfall literally flooding the City, with roads submerging at many places. Rain water that had to flow in the storm water drain or shoulder drains had flooded the roads. However, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials claim, had they not desilted the drains a couple of months ago, the situation would have been worse.
A BBMP engineer in charge of the storm water drains said though the work was taken up a bit late, Palike has been carrying out desilting for the past many months. More than Rs 8 crore has been spent on desilting at various raja kaluves or the bigger storm water drains in the City. But, these works made no difference as rainwater continued to flood the roads.
Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has been carrying out desilting of its manholes and underground drains for the past six months and every month nearly Rs 70,000 is spent on it. Despite the regular desilting, there were many manholes found overflowing during the rains.
The BWSSB call centre records also speak volumes about the complaints by the consumers, where there have been many calls made on clogging of drains and manhole overflowing.
T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB, says that many manholes are opened by the public during the rains to drain water from the flooded roads. “Nearly 40 percent of the manholes are located inside the storm water drains which allows rainwater to enter them. It is natural for the muck to enter the underground drains,” he added.
A Kodanda Pani, an urban expert, said it is important to maintain the four valleys, Hebbal, Vrushabhavathi, Koramangala and Chalaghatta, that act as the lifeline of the City carrying all the rainwater. “Non-maintenance of the shoulder drains is one of the reasons why we have rainwater flooding the roads.
Covering the shoulder drains with cement slabs is not a good idea. If it is left open, there can at least be regular maintenance. Covering them makes it difficult to manage them,” he added.