GUWAHATI: The city this monsoon has received at least three rounds of heavy downpour, the kind that would have otherwise inundated the flood prone areas of the city for at least 5-6 hours, and yet, the city did not register a flash flood of high magnitude.
The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), one of the main civic bodies executing various projects to curb waterlogging, credits this development to the two pronged approach taken this year – decommissioning the Noonmati Drainage system and the desiltation drives taken by GMDA, Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and Public Works Department (PWD).
“The area Nabin Nagar and Anil Nagar acts as a natural basin for the city where, water from the Jyotinagar and Sunsali Hills flows in via the Noonmati, Bamunimaidum and Zoo road inundating those areas too. The Bharalu River, thus, gets overloaded and causes floods. We have diverted that water through the drain which will be channelled directly to the Brahmaputra through Bonda Jan area,” Debajit Das, chief engineer of GMDA told G Plus here.
The drainage system that was proposed in 2013 is about 5 km long and was built in two phases. The width of the drain is 6 metres and the depth varies from 3 metres to 5.50 metres (including foundation depth). The drain has been constructed with RCC framed structure as per requirement of railway department as it is constructed on railway land. A pump has also been installed to pump out water which has a capacity of 4000 litres per second.
“The pump capacity right now is enough to draw out the water coming down from the hills as evident from the lack of flash-floods this year. As the load increases in the coming days, we will increase the pump capacities as and when required,” Das added.
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This comes as a breather for the city dwellers, especially those living in Zoo Road, Nabin Nagar, Anil Nagar areas, as not until last year monsoon, these areas were found inundated under flood water for 12-24 hours.
“It is beginning of July, and we have almost reached to the end of the monsoon. But there were no major flash-flood woes in the city. It happened in few selected areas, but the water receded within half hour, which is quite impressive as compared to the past few years,” Dwipen Deka, a resident of Junali area, said.
Deka’s residence, last year was inundated under water over-flown from the Bharalu River for almost 12 hours damaging his furniture and books on the ground floor.