The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is claiming to complete the pre-monsoon work before June 10, however, till date only 70 per cent work has been completed. The biggest concern for residents in the Ambil odha vicinity is that the retaining wall construction work is still underway along with cleaning and deepening nullahs of different parts of the city especially the 11 merged villages.
Normally, the PMC begins pre-monsoon work in the month of April and finishes it off by the end of May. In some years, the deadline is extended up to June 7 for the completion of the pre-monsoon works which includes cleaning, removing sludge, widening and deepening of nullahs, cleaning storm water drain, chambers, culverts cleaning of drainage lines among other things.
However, this year, the administration is claiming to complete the work before June 10.
The PMC had floated 22 tenders of cleaning nullahs in the last week of April. The amount of each tender was around ₹65 lakh. Besides this, the PMC floated 15 ward wise tenders each of ₹15 lakh.
In Ambil odha which has emerged as the most affected part of the city since the last three years in the monsoon season, the PMC identified 19 spots to construct a retaining wall to restrict the flood water to flow into the slums or residential areas. However, the work of the retaining wall construction is still underway.
The cleaning work at the Bhirobha Nullah has also not completed yet.
{{/usCountry}}The cleaning work at the Bhirobha Nullah has also not completed yet.
{{/usCountry}}Due to Tauktae, the PMC will have to clean the storm water drain in the Sinhagad road areas once again. On Saturday, additional municipal commissioner Kunal Khemnar along with the drainage department and ward officers visited Kalas dhanori, Yerawada and Wadgaonsheri areas.
The city has 236 major and small nullahs in the total 526 kilometre nullahs network in the city including the 11 merged villages (166 kilometres). Of that, 170 kilometres of nullahs are passing through high flooded areas which include Katraj, Wadgaonsheri, and all peth areas, Hadapsar, Pashan, Dhanori-Vishrantwadi, Hingne, Dattwadi, Aundh and Kothrud.
Sunil Jadhav, a resident of Kharadi area said, “The nullah of Spring glory society is yet to be cleaned. The small stretch of nullah passing through Thite areas is also not clean. Last year, we had faced a problem of water logging in this area.”
In Kothrud, Shastrinagar areas, Bavdhan area, PMC depot areas, Ramnadi area has also not completed the pre-monsoon work. The Hill side society and NDA Pashan road near Bank of India are some of the critical spots.
Ramesh Patil, a resident of Kothrud area said, “I reside near NDA Pashan road area. The PMC hasn’t started the work of cleaning nullahs yet. We face water logging problems in the monsoon season.”
Sameer Pathan, a resident of Kondhwa said, “There are nullahs passing through the Kondhwa police station. The PMC has not begun the work of cleaning the nullahs in Bhagodhaya Nagar and Survey number 42, 43
Prithviraj Sutar, a Shiv Sena corporator from Kothrud said, “In the Kothrud area, there 20 hotspots where we face water logging problems. The administration started the work late. It is not completed yet. Every year, the PMC is spending a lot of money on the same spots to clear water logging. We need a permanent solution on the water logging and monsoon-related problems.”
Sushmita Shirke, superintending engineer, sewerage, maintenance and repair department said, “We will complete the work before June 10. The work is ongoing; we will carry out the work in monsoon which comes from outskirt of city in the nullahs. We have completed 70 per cent chamber cleaning work. We are facing some problems of manpower due to Covid-19 in chamber cleaning as it is completely manual. We use machinery to clean the nullahs. So, there is no problem, we will complete it before monsoon. At present, there are around ₹15 crore worth of pre-monsoon work going on in the city.”
According to Shirke, the cleaning of nullahs in the 11 merged villages will begin from Monday.
“We have almost 15 days to complete pre-monsoon work,” she said.
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Header: Job half done
Info: Only 70 per cent of the pre-monsoon work in the city has been completed. The PMC has set a deadline of June 10 to complete all remaining work.
Length of nullahs in the city: 526 kilometres approximately
Length of cleaning work undertaken: 300 kilometres approximately
Number of drainage chambers- 40,000
Cleaned drainage chambers: 3,000
Length of storm water drainage: 145 kilometres
Length of cleaning work undertaken: 100 kilometres
Number of Culverts: 300
Number of cleaned Culverts: 200
Length of critical nullahs: 28 kilometres
Length of completed work: 18 kilometres
High flooding-prone areas in the city: Katraj, Wadgaonsheri, all peth areas, Hadapsar, Pashan, Dhanori-Vishrantwadi, Hingne, Dattawadi, Aundh and Kothrud.