Help cut floods at Delhi's Zakhira underpass: Sisodia writes to railway minister

The government said a meeting was held last month to discuss the issue but no action has been taken by the railways despite the arrival of the monsoon.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has written to Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking his intervention to help solve the problem of waterlogging at Zakhira underpass in west Delhi — one of the Capital’s recurrent annual flooding hot spots.

Delhi minister Manish Sisodia. (File image)

In a statement on Friday, the state government said, “The Delhi government has taken several steps to resolve this long-standing problem of waterlogging at the underpass but due to the waste from the railway line above and no desilting of the railway downstream pipes, all the waste flows into the underpass which leads to choking of pumps installed to clear stormwater.”

The government said a meeting was held last month to discuss the issue but no action has been taken by the railways despite the arrival of the monsoon. The meeting was held on June 20 under the chairmanship of the principal secretary of the PWD with officials of other agencies including the railways.

Railway officials were asked to increase the size of downstream pipes, remove waste from their land, de-silt culverts and pipe drains laid by the railways, as well as remove encroachment from their land, the statement said.

Sisodia, who also holds the public works department, urged the railways minister for immediate intervention and timely action, so that the situation of waterlogging can be prevented. In the letter, Sisodia also referred to the June 20 meeting and said that “a lot of garbage are spread all around railway land, due to which the size of culvert has decreased from 2 sqm to 0.44 sqm but still the desilting and cleaning has not started.”

The railway ministry spokesperson could not be reached for a comment.