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Fixing Delhi's monsoon woes a work in progress with repeated delays in formulating a drainage master plan
Delhi, which is prone to waterlogging and flooding following spells of heavy rain, continues to miss deadlines for framing and executing a drainage master plan, according to official documents reviewed by The Hindu.
Chief Secretary Dharmendra has flagged the delay in several meetings, and documents show that the drainage master plan is unlikely to be implemented ahead of the upcoming monsoon, which is less than a month away.
According to the minutes of a meeting on March 17 with senior officials, including those from the Public Works Department (PWD), which was appointed the nodal agency in 2021 to develop the drainage plan, Mr. Dharmendra remarked that 'the pace of progress by the three PWD-appointed consultant agencies is not satisfactory. The Chief Secretary also expressed displeasure over the non-adherence to the timelines'.
50-year-old blueprint
One of the main reasons for the waterlogging in the city is that it continues to operate on a drainage master plan created in 1976. The plan was designed for a population of 60 lakh and intended to handle only 50 mm of rainfall. However, Delhi's population has since increased fourfold.
Moreover, there has been a surge in encroachments and concretisation over the past nearly 50 years, which has decreased the Capital's water absorption capacity and led to a spurt in the quantity of run-off water, causing floods and waterlogging.
Push by the court
In April 2024, the Delhi High Court criticised the Delhi government, then under the Aam Aadmi Party, for the delay in formulating a new drainage master plan, stating, 'The urgency for its implementation cannot be emphasised enough.'
The court directed that detailed project reports (DPRs) for the master plan be finalised by September 15, 2024, administrative decisions taken by November 30, and implementation to begin on December 31. None of these deadlines were met. As of now, the DPRs by private consultants are expected to be finalised by the government on June 30, following which tenders will be floated. However, no deadline has been fixed for the execution, according to officials.
A senior Delhi government official said that while the unclogging and desilting of drains have improved this year, compared to 2024, desilting alone will not solve the problem.
Years of delay
In 2011, the Delhi government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi to develop a drainage master plan. The team submitted its report in 2018, featuring a dynamic software model designed to incorporate data such as topography, soil type, and rainfall. However, in 2021, a technical committee rejected it, prompting the government to start the process afresh.
Professor A.K. Gosain, who led the IIT-D team, said, 'The problem of waterlogging will happen at a particular point, but to solve it, the network of drains to that point has to be seen as a whole. That is why a drainage master plan is important, as it provides a comprehensive picture.'
