Yamuna riverbed to be dredged after monsoon: Delhi govt

Delhi plans to double Wazirabad barrage's water storage by dredging the Yamuna post-monsoon, aiming for ₹27 crore revenue from excavated material.

The Delhi government plans to double the water storage capacity of the Wazirabad barrage in north Delhi by dredging the Yamuna riverbed after the monsoon, government officials said on Sunday.

The Yamuna in Wazirabad on July 2. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Delhi water minister Parvesh Verma said fresh silt and mud in the river from heavy rains upstream would have complicated the project during the monsoon. The government will likely earn ₹27 crore revenue from the excavated material, he added.

“The previous government used to pay money to contractors for dredging but we will earn revenue from the exercise. We will dredge the river after the monsoon,” Verma said.

The Wazirabad pondage is Delhi’s primary holding area for water from the Yamuna. In April, the government had called tenders to dredge and desilt the riverbed between the Wazirabad barrage and Ram Ghat to remove silt, weeds and shoal material.

Dredging is removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of water bodies, typically done to increase the water body’s depth. Desilting refers to the removal of silt or fine particles from a water body to improve flow and prevent flooding.

A senior government official said bids for the project were submitted with a reserve price of ₹27 crore, but agencies will need three months to complete the exercise. “Monsoon rains would have brought in more silt and mud, and led to a dispute over the quantum of material to be excavated. There is high demand for this sand as construction material. We decided that the process should be done after the monsoon season,” he added.

The Delhi Jal Board was planning removal of around 363,000 cubic metres of silt from the pondage area. “The pondage area has not been cleared for more than a decade and its capacity has almost halved. Currently, it is only able to hold 100 million gallons of water and once the project is complete, its capacity will be between 200-250 million gallons per day. We estimate that there is an average of 2.15 siltation in the river bed,” the official explained.

The pondage area ahead of Wazirabad barrage acts as the primary water holding area which supplies water to three water treatment plants at Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla, which supply a quarter of the city’s daily water requirement. “Dredging and desilting of the pondage area will be carried out and it will involve removing shoal up to the base level of 204m through mechanical intervention,” the official added.

According to a DJB report, the Yamuna near Wazirabad was last desilted in 2013. But that attempt was stopped by the National Green Tribunal over concerns about sand mining. In 2015, the tribunal permitted the work, noting that “dredging needs to be carried out in public interest and to maintain the flow of the river”.