4 days ago
After early deluge, AMC hires IIT-Gn to survey city, tackle urban flooding
Ahmedabad: Thursday's early morning showers and the ensuing inconvenience to citizens from waterlogging may have been a wake up call for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
After over a 100 locations were inundated, some for over 10 hours, the civic body roped in IIT Gandhinagar for Rs 12 lakh to conduct a survey to identify problem areas. The decision was taken at the meeting of AMC's water and sewerage committee on Friday. IIT-Gn will prepare detailed designs, presentations, and a DPR to prevent urban flooding.
Dilip Bagaria, chairman of the water and sewerage committee, said, "Centre's National Disaster Management Authority has chosen seven cities, including Ahmedabad, to reduce and prevent urban flooding.
Ahmedabad's current stormwater network is limited, and implementing a systematic new network could reduce the problem.
Hence, we are going to conduct a detailed survey." He added, "Waterlogging spots in the city will be identified, and a systematic stormwater network design will be determined to reduce the number of such spots. IIT-Gn has been tasked with the survey and preparing a DPR."
Thursday's rain showed Amdavadis what to expect when the monsoon sets in. Over 100 locations were affected and life was thrown out of gear. Commuters were stranded in streets filled with knee-deep water. Last year, an average 10 inches of rain from Aug 25 to 27, resulted in waterlogging at more than 300 locations. While water receded from most spots within an hour, 157 remained inundated for over an hour, and at 10 spots, the problem persisted for one to four days.
