The Times of India              27.06.2013

'We are unable to take up drainage project for want of funds'

JAIPUR: With the onset of monsoon, various departments of the state government woke up from their slumber on Wednesday and inspected cleanliness work of drainage in the city.

Following the direction of urban development and housing (UDH) additional secretary G S Sandhu, a joint team of inspection comprising Metro, Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) and senior engineers was formed for various places.

The technical group of the team has expressed satisfaction with the drainage desilation. Simultaneously, directions to resolve problems of a few drains were also made. "After Tuesday's rainfall, the problem of water logging was faced in many areas including posh localities such as Raja Park and Ramniwas Bagh among others. It was learnt there is disturbance in water flow where electricity and telephone phone cables are laid recently. The problem will be resolved soon," a member of the team said.

Sources in the department claimed that waterlogging, a malaise continuing to plague the city every monsoon, could become acute in the coming years in the absence of an adequate drainage system.

Civic authorities plead helplessness and cite lack of fund crunch for not taking up a drainage project. Now, the urban and housing department is eyeing Centre's assistance under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme for the drainage project.

"In the absence of a drainage system, water remains for a longer duration and hampered the traffic flow," a senior engineer at the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) said, adding, "We have constructed concrete cement roads in areas with no drainage facility."

Officials said the unplanned manner in which the construction of roads has been taken up is one of the major reasons for lack of an efficient drainage system.

"As there was no integrated plan for development of roads, the roads were widened in phases disturbing the drainage system," the official said.

"Now, authorities will face a bigger problem of building drains with no space left on either side of the roads," he added.

Financial problems too have added to the woes of the civic authorities struggling to develop a proper drainage system in the city.

In 2007, JMC had drawn a drainage plan of Rs 1,200 crore for the city. The plan was sent to the Central government for funding under the JNNURM scheme, but failed to attract any assistance. "As per the plan, the city roads were divided into 16 sectors under which the problem of waterlogging was set to be addressed to a large extent. Now, after so many years, the construction cost too has increased manifold," he said.

Without an adequate system, officials said the standing water in colonies and various major roads has not been able to reach the bigger drains. The Amanishah Nullah, Ganda Nullah, Jawahar Nullah and Nag Talai are the bigger drains which finally meet at Dhund River.