Nagpur: This is not the first time that Nagpur is witnessing such a rainy havoc. Wading past the waters of history, one can recall that on July 31, 2013, when mighty downpour hit the city scapes, boats were pushed into flooding waters of Sitabuldi to shift the stranded citizens to safety. A bundle of discussions were held post that tragic rains, and a master plan to combat such a heavy downpour was put on priority list.
Cut to August 13, 2015 when the city witnessed the similar rain fury yet again, minus all the efforts that were laud mouthed during the previous tragedy. The half marooned city and over flowing Nag and Pili river are the tell tale signs and exposes NMC’s non-preparedness.
This indicates that NMC and State Government did not learn from the past. The city clearly lacks in rain water management and there is no mechanism to flush out the water logging in the city as per its expansion.
A network of city’s 3960 kms of roads (pathetically we have to call those deluge of potholes as roads) remain under water whenever the city falls under heavy downpour. Both the road construction and storm water harvesting system are washed away into mere words. A lot of money is wasted in the name of road repairs but nothing is done to attend the water logging.
Every year NMC makes the provision of Rs 5 crore for storm water management which has been increased to Rs 7 crore this year. Basking in hollow pride of being awarded for Nag river cleanliness, NMC has certainly ignored its winning bet and left it to turn a dumping valley yet again. Nag river is still flowing above danger mark.
With such a set of things a serious question is being posed over Nagpur moving ahead to take the tag of Smart City.
… Divyesh Dwivedei
