Noida engages IIT Roorkee to address waterlogging issues

The experts team will visit other bottleneck areas next week for inspection of the storm water drainage network so that the required changes in the gradient can be made, said officials

NOIDAThe Noida authority has engaged experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee to survey and find ways to tackle the waterlogging woes in the city, said officials adding that a meeting was held on Thursday between the experts and officials from the water works and the civil departments regarding the same.

Noida authority chief executive officer Lokesh M on July 25 directed the water works department to bring in experts from IIT Roorkee, for a detailed survey of some key areas. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Archives)

The Noida authority chief executive officer, Lokesh M, on July 25 directed the water works department to bring in experts from IIT Roorkee, for a detailed survey of some key areas, where the waterlogging took place during this monsoon. The experts were directed to visit some areas including sectors 6, 58, 59, and 62 among others, where most water logging complaints were reported.

Experts led by professor Kamal Jain along with the Noida authority team conducted surveys of the areas on July 29 where waterlogging persisted during this rainy season. The team visited the waterlogging bottleneck points in sectors 58, 59 and 62 including villages and sectors located on the border shared with Ghaziabad’s Khoda village.

“The experts along with the authority staff conducted the visits to some areas, and will visit some remaining areas in future to prepare a detailed plan. Once the experts will submit the detailed action plan the authority will work on the suggestions to address the waterlogging issues in these areas. This year there are very few waterlogging complaints and the authority aims to resolve the remaining issues so that the citizens do not face any issue in future,” said Sanjay Kumar Khatri, additional chief executive officer of the Noida authority.

The experts team will visit other bottleneck areas next week for inspection of the storm water drainage network so that the required changes in the gradient can be made, said officials, adding that the detailed report is expected in a month.

Several areas in sectors 6, 7, 12, 19, 20, 39 and 62 witnessed waterlogging after rains on Thursday.

“In our sector waterlogging was so much that rainwater reached the cars, and it was not possible to walk on internal roads of Sector 39. When I woke up in the morning my driver could not enter the car that was deep into the rain water. I had to take a taxi to reach Delhi as my car broke down due to rain water,” said Rushmeet Singh, a resident of Sector 39.

“The water was neck deep in some houses in our sector because the rainwater was not drained out. The Noida authority must address this issue urgently,” said Amit Chauhan, a resident of Sector 19.

The Noida authority said that the city’s main irrigation drain that begins from Delhi’s Ashok Nagar and pass through Noida’s key areas including sectors 55, 56, 12, 11, 22, 23, 50, 51, 137 and 168 before merging with the Yamuna carries the water and sewer of Delhi areas and Noida’s areas. If rainwater overflows in this drain during heavy rains then it fails to drain out the rainwater quickly into the Yamuna thereby causing the waterlogging in some areas. And these areas including sectors 59, 62 and 7 among others bordering Delhi get excess rainwater if it rains heavily. As a result, some smaller drains of Noida take longer to drain out the rainwater in residential sectors and villages.