New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) The Delhi Public Works Department has identified at least seven critical waterlogging points in the city, including the Minto Road Underpass, and is taking up several projects such as construction of drains and installation of pumps to avoid water accumulation during heavy rains.

To prevent any untoward incident, boats and divers will be also be deployed in areas which face flooding, senior officials of the department said on Monday

The Public Works Department (PWD) has shortlisted at least seven locations which are critical in terms of waterlogging, they said.

PWD Secretary Dilraj Kaur said there are about seven critical locations and these include Minto Bridge and Pul Prahladpur.

The department is taking many short-term as well as long-term measures including installation of automated pumps and CCTV cameras, enhancing man power and deploying additional maintenance vans, Kaur said.

"We are taking a number of measures to ensure that there is no waterlogging at these critical points next monsoon season," the secretary said.

The main reasons for waterlogging at these locations is the topography of the area and poor drainage system in the catchment area.

"Given the kind of unplanned development, the drainage is inadequate in Delhi. In the national capital, drains are designed to discharge storm water up to a rain intensity of 50 mm only, but this year the city has witnessed two-third of the average rainfall in July only which led to waterlogging," the official told reporters.

"At the Pul Prahladpur Underpass, as a short-term measure, we have set up eight additional pumps and installed seven CCTV cameras for real-time monitoring. We have also deployed two boats and three divers for the Pul Prahladpur underpass and Minto Road RUB to deter any untoward incident after heavy rains," Kaur said.

She said that the Minto Road Underpass has not witnessed waterlogging this year so far because of “specific measures” that include construction of a separate drain at the location.

Apart from the Minto Road Underpass and the Pul Prahladpur Underpass, other critical points include the Ring Road opposite WHO building, Zakhira Underpass, Loni Road Golchakkar, Jahangirpuri Metro Station Road and Karala Kanjhawala Road.

Delhi has witnessed extensive waterlogging in many areas of the city after heavy spells of rain since July 13.

Many stretches such as the Pul Prahladpur Underpass, Zakhira Underpass, Azadpur Underpass, Ring Road, Vikas Marg, Rohtak Road abd Yamuna Bazar Underpass among others were heavily inundated this monsoon.

PWD Engineer-in-Chief Shashi Kant said, "At Pul Prahladpur we will construct a separate drain that will merge with the another PWD drain 300 metres away from the spot.This will help us in reducing waterlogging to a greater extent here. An additional sump and eight more pumps will be created to solve water accumulation problem there."

He said that as more colonies developed, new small drains were constructed which flow into larger PWD drains along main roads, which have already reached their carrying capacity.

Storm water from previously unpaved areas now flows into drains along roads, Kant said.

“Storm water from smaller drains of municipal corporations flows to PWD drains, which flow into larger Irrigation and Flood Control drains and finally into the Yamuna. Since the level of the Yamuna has increased, water level the I&FC drains increases hence they close gates of their drains thereby causing waterlogging,” Kant said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)