Noida Authority on Monday claimed that it has completed almost 99 percent cleaning work of the city’s main irrigation drain. The residents have been long demanding the authority to carry out the cleaning work of the drain.
In July 2017, the 17-kilometres long irrigation drain got severely choked during the monsoons leading to massive waterlogging in the city, particularly in residential areas.
A senior project engineer of Noida Authority told City Spidey that only one percent of cleaning work is pending, which will also be completed soon. “The authority has allocated several crore budget to carry out the cleaning work of the city’s biggest drain,” said the official.
Last year, the authority had spent Rs 4.5 crores on the cleaning work but the waterlogging problem remained the same. However, the authority had claimed that in 2018, the waterlogging issue was reduced by half and after completing the work this year, it will come down by as much as 90 percent.
“The work was started in August 2018 with six months’ deadline,” another official of Noida Authority added. “Our aim is that the drain doesn’t get choked. We have ensured that all sorts of waste including plastic bags are cleaned properly.”
The 17-kilometres long drain, which originates from Kondli in Delhi and ends in Yamuna river near Sector-150 of Noida, passes through many densely populated residential sectors of Noida. The water flowing in the drain is highly contaminated and has been a nuisance for those whose houses are in its close proximity. The UP irrigation department has failed to keep it clean as it is full of non-degradable waste, polythene bags and sludge that choke the flow of waste water.
Reema Srivastav, a resident, said that the irrigation canal has been in a bad shape for many years. “In the past, we have written many letters to Noida Authority asking them to clean the drain but they always fail to do it,” she said.
In July 2017, a four- to five-hour downpour had thrown life out of gear as the irrigation drain was choked with silt, plastic and other waste. Water had then entered into many houses and traffic crawled for four to five hours on all major roads.
