Waterlogged roads bring 350 civic staff to clean stormwater drainage lines in Pune

The rains that lashed the city on Sunday exposed the shoddy stormwater drainage line works done by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) even as it claimed of cleaning and clearing it under the pre-monsoon works

The rains that lashed the city on Sunday exposed the shoddy stormwater drainage line works done by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) even as it claimed of cleaning and clearing it under the pre-monsoon works. The waterlogged areas left many residents stranded.

A civic staff cleans a choked drainage at Dolphin chowk, Upper Indiranagar on Monday. (Rahul Raut/HT PHOTO)

Around 350 PMC staff were on duty at 80 locations across the city on Monday, cleaning manholes and stormwater drainage lines.

Santosh Tandale, head, PMC drainage department, said, “We have got a list of 80 locations that reported waterlogging such as Bhagyodaynagar in Kondhwa, Mahesh Society, Bibwewadi and others areas in peths like Kasba peth, Mangalwar peth and Ghorpodi peth, Timber market and Karvenagar. We have deployed 25 people in each ward office to expedite the work of clearing choked drainage lines. We finished 80% of work today.”

“Most of the drains were cleared before the monsoon, but with waterlogging, a lot of floating garbage and loose stone particles got stuck inside the garter and choked the lines,” he said.

Several housing societies at various parts of the city complained of water from overflowing drainage and stormwater lines entering their premises. Heavy rains on Sunday resulted in drainage lines overflowing in areas like Katraj, Undri and Hadapsar.