Ahead of monsoon onset in Delhi, PWD misses another deadline to desilt drains, 40% work pending

Indian Express

9 hours ago

Ahead of the onset of the monsoon, the Public Works Depart-ment (PWD) has failed to meet its second deadline to complete desilting drains across Delhi. According to the latest status report, only 60.47% of the total 2,140.91-km of PWD-managed drains were desilted, as of Monday.
The desilting work was originally scheduled to be completed by May 30, as per the Delhi government's plan but the department was granted additional time, with PWD Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh announcing June 15 as the revised target during a site inspection earlier this month. Despite this extension, progress has remained behind schedule.
Senior officials acknowledged the delays but did not offer explanations. Navin Kumar Choudhary, Additional Chief Secretary for both the PWD and the Irrigation and Flood Control Department (the nodal agency for desilting), said that progress varied widely across zones. He added that updates were being regularly shared with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Chief Secretary Dharmendra.
With pre-monsoon showers already hitting parts of Delhi and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) expecting an earlier-than-usual monsoon onset, the city, if not fully prepared, could see waterlogging and flooding in vulnerable areas.
The Southwest monsoon is expected to hit the city between June 19 and June 25.
While monsoon preparedness in Delhi was one of the key poll promises of the BJP during its Assembly election campaign earlier this year, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has repeatedly said that her government is trying to ensure waterlogging-free Delhi this monsoon.
The official report shows that out of the 2,140.91 km of drains, 1,294.60 km had been cleared by Monday. While smaller drains have seen moderate progress, several major ones—large in both capacity and urban impact—remain only partially cleared.
For example, as per the report, the Shahdara Road drain, which handles high volumes of runoff and spans a sizeable width of over 1,800 mm to 3,000 mm, has seen only 72.92% desilting so far.
Similarly, desilting at the East Road drain, another high-capacity conduit, stood at 62.25%, and the North Road (NR) drain, one of the city's longest and largest, is just 52.66% complete.
While SWR-2 drain in Southwest Delhi achieved 100% desilting, as per the report, other key stretches such as WR-2 and NWR-2 are languishing at 31.91% and 36.38%, respectively — despite being part of Delhi's core drainage infrastructure
The city had set a seasonal target to remove 2.26 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of silt from 77 major drains. As of May 29, 1.42 lakh MT had been cleared—about 62.81%. The total silt removed as of Monday stood at 23,190 MT.
Despite the PWD's claims of action on a 'war-footing', the pace and uneven progress can hamper the city's ability to withstand heavy rain — especially in flood-prone pockets like Mehrauli, Okhla, and Shahdara.
Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa had earlier told The Indian Express in an interview that long-term neglect and poor management by the previous AAP government had created a lot of backlogs, as well as an increase in the time taken to complete several key projects.