DDA asks CAQM for permission to start work on Dwarka drain

The ₹69.72 crore project involves the construction of a 3km drain from the IGI Airport to Bharat Vandana Park, and further to Trunk Drain in Dwarka. The project was conceived in 2019 following reports of flooding at the airport during the monsoon.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has written to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to allow the construction of a crucial drain project in Dwarka’s Sector 8, which is essential to ensure that there is no waterlogging at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.

New Delhi, India - Aug. 19, 2020: A vehicle wade through a waterlogged stretch after heavy rain at Mahipalpur Underpass near IGI Airport T3, in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, August 19, 2020. (Photo by Sanjeev Verma/ Hindustan Times) (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The ₹69.72 crore project involves the construction of a 3km drain from the IGI Airport to Bharat Vandana Park, and further to Trunk Drain in Dwarka. The project was conceived in 2019 following reports of flooding at the airport during the monsoon.

DDA officials said that due to a ban imposed on the movement of heavy vehicles and of construction activity as part of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap), they are not able to start the work on site.

“The project recently got all the necessary clearances and the construction work was to start in October. But then the ban was imposed. We have written to the CAQM and will be meeting senior officials on Friday to discuss the issue,” said a senior DDA official aware of the matter.

The Centre allocated funds to the DDA for the project in 2019, and a contractor was awarded the project in February 2020. However, construction could not begin due to a delay in getting permission for the cutting or transplanting of 693 trees from the Delhi government’s forest department.

“We applied for permission for tree cutting in November 2020 after completing the survey and fulfilled all the requisite formalities including payment and allotment of land for compensatory afforestation. But we got the permission only in August 2022,” said a senior DDA official.

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena had on November 8 visited the construction site and had instructed DDA officials to undertake the completion of the works in a “mission mode”. “The LG directed us to complete the work well within time so that problems of flooding do not take place at the airport,” the DDA official said.