DDA’s drain project to end waterlogging at Delhi airport gets forest dept nod

The drain, aimed at removing water from the airpory area, will be built through Dwarka’s Sector 8, DDA officials said.

There is an end in sight to the waterlogging woes of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA)-- the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)’s stormwater drain project has finally got the green signal from the state forest and wildlife department, almost two years after it was sought.

Indira Gandhi International Airport, in New Delhi. (ANI PHOTO)

The drain, aimed at removing water from the airpory area, will be built through Dwarka’s Sector 8, DDA officials said. The forest department clearance, which came on May 17 and was put in the public domain recently, was crucial as an estimated 693 trees will be impacted by the project. Of these, 637 trees will be transplanted and 56 will be felled, the permission document given to the DDA showed. The drain is expected to be completed some time next year, officials said.

The 3km long drain will run from the airport up to Bharat Vandana Park and further to Trunk Drain 2. A sizeable portion of the drain, which will be completely underground, will pass through a waterbody and a park in Dwarka’s Sector 8 near Bagdola village, DDA officials said.

Senior DDA officials said the construction work was awarded just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, but getting the requisite permission from the forest department took two years.

“The project should have been completed by now. We have to now deposit nearly ₹4 crore for the transplantation process. It will take a few months before the work starts,” said a senior DDA official, asking not to be named.

Forest officials, however, denied delaying permissions. A senior forest department official from the west division said DDA had to be prompted multiple times to submit all documents required for awarding the permission and only then could the site inspection take place. “The document details are already on the website, but still several documents are missing and DDA had to be repeatedly told to share them with us,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Last year, too, monsoon rain had wreaked havoc on the Delhi airport, with heavy waterlogging being reported outside Terminal-3 and also from the airside. The Delhi airport is spread over a land parcel of around 2,500 acres and, based on the topography, has been divided into two parts – a northern air parcel and a southern air parcel. While the northern air parcel includes Terminal-2, Terminal-1 and the air cargo operations, the southern air parcel includes Terminal-3 and other operations.

Over the past few years, the northern air parcel was impacted the most by the waterlogging as DDA’s artillery drainage network , which is 2.5 metres wide and 1 metre deep, proved to be inadequate as rainwater from Mahipalpur junction also flowed into the northern access underpass, thereby waterlogging the area.

To solve the problem, a series of meetings was held by the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited since 2014, with DDA awarding consultancy to IIT-Roorkee in 2015. After two years, a drain alignment was finalised and in 2019, DDA received funds from the ministry of urban development (MoUD), with a proposal sent to the forest department in 2020 for green clearance.

With that clearance coming this May, residents of Dwarka’s Sector 8 are worried about the impact of the project. Amit Kumar, who lives in Sector 8, said, “There is a major waterlogging problem in the area. Last year, the water entered the residential areas. We have been pursuing the matter with DDA for a long time. The project to construct the drain was approved by the DDA, but the work couldn’t start due to delay in getting permission from the forest department.”

Senior DDA officials said that necessary measures have been taken to ensure that there is no waterlogging in the area this year. “We have cleared all drains. In sector 8 and sector 23, we have created waterbodies where the excess rainwater will be collected,” said a second DDA official, asking not to be named.