Even a short spell of rain can bring the city to its knees with flooded streets and overflowing drains. In an attempt to tackle this problem, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has prepared an action plan that includes annual maintenance of storm-water drains (SWD).
Sources in the civic body told The Hindu that there are three components to the ambitious action plan — purchase of pumps to drain water and clearing of silt at critical junction if they are blocked; a short-term annual maintenance scheme; and an inventory of SWDs followed by construction of RCC retaining walls.
The annual maintenance scheme that the BBMP has proposed is a short-term plan that will most likely be implemented from January 2019. Sources explained that cross-sections of the drains will be fixed by geo-coordinates and tendered. The contractor will have to maintain the drain by taking up continuous dredging work, removing waste, and preventing people from throwing garbage into them. “The drains have already been divided in zones, and the cost of maintenance will vary depending on their width. As per estimates, it will cost around ₹7 lakh per annum to maintain one km of the SWD,” said civic officials.
Trash barriers
Officials have proposed that trash barriers — which have proven to be successful in arresting floating solid waste from choking drains in Cooum, Chennai — be installed at critical locations. Even here, the contractor will be expected to clear floating garbage every day. Another proposal is to construct earthen drains or kaccha drains to lead the storm water towards natural valleys/tanks where permanent drains are yet to be constructed. This is feasible in the outer zones of the city.
The BBMP is also working towards preparing an ‘SWD inventory’. “We suggest that the entire length, width and depth of drains be surveyed using geo-coordinates to calculate run off,” said senior officials. This way, the BBMP can identify obstructions such as manholes, pipelines and cables that are affecting the flow of storm water in drains.” However, for this to work, civic officials stressed on the need for coordinated action to remove utility services from the SWD network. “The other civic agencies will have to shift or relocate their utilities at their own cost,” sources said.
No easy solution
A long-term plan includes construction of RCC retaining walls and remodelling of SWDs, widening of narrow bridges at select locations, and development of waterbodies as flood retention basins in coordination with lake authorities. “Earlier, the budget for remodelling of existing drains and for building new drains was ₹1,440 crore. The government had sent the proposal back to BBMP with a direction to clearly earmark funds for each. The proposal will be re-sent to the government soon,” sources said and added that priority is being given to construct the missing length of retaining walls of drains.
Encroachments yet to be cleared
It’s been two years since the Joint Director of Land Records (JDLR) of Bengaluru Urban district identified 1,988 separate instances of encroachment of the storm-water drain (SWD) network in the city. Apart from removal of a few encroachments in Bommanahalli zone, there has been barely any progress.
The BBMP, which is responsible for development and maintenance of SWDs in the city, is now claiming that the drains are properties of the Revenue Department. “As such, the department should have in place a mechanism to periodically survey and identify encroachments, and should be responsible for clearing them,” said a civic official.
He added that the BBMP is still awaiting action from the office of the JDLR, Bengaluru Urban district, to transfer the sketch co-ordinates on to the ground for removal of encroachments and construction of SWDs in new zones. While stating that the BBMP will give all logistic support like marking stones, apart from availing the services of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force for police protection to revenue officials, the BBMP officials reiterated that removal of encroachments was the responsibility of the revenue department.
“The BBMP is like the tenant, while the owner of the drains is the revenue department. The tenant (BBMP) has no role in identification or removal of encroachments,” the official claimed.
Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru (Urban) B.M. Vijayshankar told The Hindu that an action plan had been drawn up to restart the encroachment removal drive. Sources in the Deputy Commissioner's office said the surveyors have been instructed to mark properties encroaching the drains and monitor them until they are cleared. They also said that the district administration had constituted a coordination committee with officials from the BBMP, Bengaluru Development Authority, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, and Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority.
