Being rain-ready a far cry in Jalandhar

JALANDHAR: The two-hour rain on Wednesday exposed how ill-prepared Jalandhar, a would-be smart city, is to tackle waterlogging when there is a heavy downpour.

Choked sewer pipelines due to plastic coupled with the absence of proper sewerage cleaning led to flooding of the majority of roads and low-lying areas in the city.

The worst-hit areas were 120 Feet Road, Sodal Road, Preet Nagar Road, Ladowali Road, Basti Adda Road, Football Chowk, district administrative complex, Domoria Bridge, Basti Sheikh, New Railway Road and Phagwara Gate.

Jatinder Singh Khaira, an assistant professor at a city college, said, “I left for office at 8am and by the time I reached Kapurthala Chowk, it had started raining heavily. We moved only a few metres in an hour.”

Though Jalandhar along with Amritsar was included in the smart city list by the Union government in September 2016, the civic body has managed to cover only about 8% area with stormwater drainage while the existing sewage pipes are small in size to handle a heavy flow of water.

Even as the civic body has been using super suction machines to clear the choked sewer pipes for over a year, but they proved of little used when the city got waterlogged.

The stagnant rainwater has created potholes on the roads in the city’s posh localities such as Cool road, Income Tax Colony, Model Town and Mall Road, giving an open invitation to mishaps.

The Congress-ruled MC House, facing

This is a serious problem. Cleanliness workers do not perform their job properly. We are planning to install more stormwater drainage systems soon. JAGDISH RAJA, Jalandhar mayor

a huge fund crunch, apparently does not have any plan to tackle heavy rain in future. Making the matters worse, the civic body staff has been on strike for the last four days to protest against non-payment of their June salaries.

“Since only 8% area of the city is currently covered under stormwater drainage, this is why water took so much time to recede,” said Kishor Chand Bansal, superintending engineer (operation and maintenance).

In the last financial year, MC had spent ₹45 lakh on cleanliness and maintenance of sewerage and water supply system in the city.