Monsoon ahead but gullies in Mohali remain clogged
MOHALI: Though pre-monsoon showers are likely to hit the region in two weeks, Mohali, like every year, is still not rain ready.
Authorities are yet start cleaning of city’s road gullies, stated to be around 13,000 in number. A majority of these gullies are blocked, Hindustan Times has found.
While 7,000 road gullies are under the jurisdiction of the public health department, 3,000 are under the municipal corporation, while 3,000 fall under the purview of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). None of the authorities has started cleaning the gullies.
Every year, a budget of ₹1 crore is allocated for cleaning of gullies before the onset of monsoon. Yet every year, life goes out of gear as roads get inundated after just few hours of rain. On Sunday also, roads in Phase 4 were flooded just after two hours of showers.
Among the worst-hit areas in Mohali are Mataur village in Sector 70, Phase 4, 5, 11, 3B1 and 3B2.
Monsoon is especially a nightmare at Mataur village due to congested streets, choked drains and lack of space to construct additional drains.
NO WORK ON GROUND, AUTHORITIES JUST GIVE ASSURANCES
When contacted, public health department’s executive engineer Kamal Kishore said, “We have already floated the tender and work will hopefully begin next week. We are expecting the cleaning of gullies to be complete in a month’s time.” GMADA executive engineer Pankaj Mahmi said, “We have just started the cleaning work and we are sure we will finish it on time.”
PLAN BETTER, SAY RESIDENTS
Punjab’s former town planning director MS Aujla, who is a resident of Mohali, said, “It’s the same story every year. Our drainage system cannot handle increased intensity of rain spells. Authorities should think of a long-term solution and increase the carrying capacity of drainage system. It is time we conduct an audit of the drainage system, keeping the climate change and extreme events in mind.”
CL Garg, president of the Confederation of Greater Mohali Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA), the apex body of the 65 RWAs, said, “It is strange that every year, they start cleaning work at the eleventh hour. The officers concerned should be held responsible for the mess. There used to be no waterlogging about 20 years ago as the roads were not above the plinth level. Now, roads dividing sectors are above the plinth level of houses, resulting in rainwater flowing into houses.”
He added, “Authorities have been flouting the norms by laying pre-mix without digging up the roads. Consequently, the height of the roads keeps increasing.”