"Changes in drainage system: Delhi PWD minister on CP Outer Circle waterlogging

New Delhi: Delhi PWD Minister Parvesh Verma on Sunday inspected the Connaught Place Outer Circle that suffered waterlogging a day earlier following heavy rain, and blamed alterations made to the 100-year-old drainage system for the inundation.

The minister said he visited the same site late at night a day earlier when heavy rain led to water accumulation in a 100-metre stretch near the well-known Kake Da Hotel area.

The root cause, he explained, lies in a century-old barrel drainage system. Over time, construction of buildings in the Connaught Place area reduced the size of these barrels, restricting the natural flow and causing frequent waterlogging, he said.

"To address this, we have installed two high-capacity pumps to ease the load on the drain and push water forward more efficiently," Verma said.

The minister further stated that during his late-night visit, he observed that water had entered some shops, prompting the PWD to conduct a detailed point-by-point study to find permanent solutions to the problem.

An official statement said 34 critical waterlogging points, including Zakhira, Minto Bridge, Moolchand, and ITO, all of which used to get flooded every year for the past decade, remained free of waterlogging.

The minister said the success is due to continuous monitoring, timely interventions, and rapid on-site action. He emphasised that reports received through social media and the press are being addressed by field engineers.

"Wherever waterlogging is reported, I visit the site or send my engineers to inspect and fix the issue without delay. This year, water accumulation on PWD roads has been significantly lower. We are working on every point and will ensure that in the coming years, Delhi will be completely free from waterlogging," Verma said.

Expressing grief over the death of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who fell into a sewer, he said, "This is an extremely unfortunate and heartbreaking incident. We are committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure such tragedies never happen again." The boy died after falling into an open sewer in Outer North Delhi's Khera Khurd village amid heavy rain on Saturday morning, police said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit out at Verma for visiting Connaught Place on Sunday in a "belated and meaningless" inspection.

Its Delhi unit president, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said Parvesh Verma "woke up 24 hours after the city drowned" and was now "looking for potholes" instead of having been on the ground when people were dying.

Pointing to Saturday's deaths from a collapsed wall and an open sewer, Bharadwaj said the minister should be visiting bereaved families, not dry roads.

If the minister truly wanted to see waterlogging, "he should have gone out with an umbrella during the rain." Addressing a press conference, Bharadwaj questioned why the minister has not visited the families of the seven people who died when a wall collapsed due to rain.

"The same thing happened last time. Rain poured all day, and when it stopped in the evening, CM Rekha Gupta went for an inspection. The BJP government has turned Delhi into a joke," he said.

Heavy overnight rain in the national capital turned fatal on Saturday morning when a wall near Mohan Baba Mandir in Jaitpur caved in, killing seven people and injuring one. Many of the victims were migrant workers from West Bengal. PTI SLB NSD NSD