Delhi freed from waterlogging, construction of four trunk drains in progress: CM Rekha Gupta!

The government led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has taken a big and far-reaching step to improve the drainage system towards the resolution of making Delhi a modern, global and developed capital. Under this, four big drains of Delhi – Mundka Halt-Supplementary Drain, MB Road Storm Water Drain, Kirari-Rithala Trunk Drain and Storm Water Drain on Rohtak Road (NH-10) are being developed as important components under the ‘Drainage Master Plan’. Delhi Government has accelerated the pace of construction and expansion of these big trunk drains.

CM Rekha Gupta informed that in the 1970s, ‘Drainage Master Plan’ was made regarding the sewer system and drainage of Delhi. Despite the increasing population and rapid construction activities, the expected changes in this master plan could not be made, due to which the drainage situation continued to become serious.

The Chief Minister said that our government has made effective changes keeping in mind the geographical location of Delhi, waterlogging and population pressure and drains etc. are being constructed accordingly, so that in future the capital of the country does not have to face waterlogging and its related problems.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta believes that the real identity of any metropolis lies in its strong, scientific and far-reaching drainage system. Under this thinking, the Delhi government has given priority to those areas of the capital, where the common people have been facing a lot of trouble for years due to waterlogging, overloaded sewer lines and other problems. Now Delhiites will get relief from this.

To solve the drainage problem of Kirari, Mundka, Bawana and Nangloi assembly constituencies of West Delhi, construction of a 4.5 km long trunk drain parallel to the railway line has been proposed. This drain is being constructed by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department. The estimated cost of this drain is Rs 220.93 crore and it has been designed to handle rainwater from a large catchment area of ​​1,520 acres.

The discharge capacity of the drain has been kept at 760 cusecs, so that drainage can be carried out without interruption even in case of extreme rainfall during monsoon. The drain will start from Mundka Halt station and will run along the railway corridor and join the supplementary drain.

The specialty of this drain is that the water from various secondary drains coming in its path will also be absorbed into it, due to which the drainage system of the entire area will be integrated and well organized. The proposed work is to be carried out within the railway land limits, for which MoU has already been signed with the Railways.

The total length of the road under this project is 11.38 kilometers, while the total length of drains on both sides will be 22.76 kilometers. The estimated cost of this project is Rs 387.84 crore. It will be completed in 2.5 years, which includes 6 months pre-construction and 2 years construction period. This drain is being constructed by the PWD Department of Delhi Government.

The project is also important because the existing storm water drains at many places are either of inadequate capacity or have been damaged during construction. Apart from this, the project also has provisions for transplantation/felling of about 500 trees, construction of footpaths and shifting of electricity, water board and other utilities.

Another important project is the construction of the proposed 7,200 meter long trunk drain from Kirari to Rithala (near Rohini) in north-west Delhi. The estimated cost of this DDA project is Rs 250.21 crore and its design discharge capacity has been kept at 1,160 cusecs. At present, about 600 meters of construction work of this drain has been completed. The remaining work was halted due to pending permission for felling of 84 trees, which has now been resolved.

Apart from this, improvement work of storm water drain is being done on war footing to strengthen the drainage system on Rohtak Road (NH-10). Under this project of PWD, drains are being constructed and improved on both sides from Kirari Suleman Drain near Nangloi Railway Metro Station to Hiran Jump Drain (Metro Pillar No. 428 to 626) and from Tikri Border to Hiran Jump Drain (Metro Pillar No. 753 to 626).

The estimated cost of this project is Rs 184 crore, out of which the Government of India has given Rs 105 crore in 2025-26 under the ‘Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI)’ scheme. This project is targeted to be completed by March 2026.

He said that Delhi’s ‘Drainage Master Plan’ has been prepared keeping in mind the increasing urbanization of the capital, climate change and population pressure. Its objective is to increase the capacity of major trunk drains to safely and rapidly transport rainwater to Yamuna, reduce pressure on the sewer system and ensure a permanent solution to the problem of waterlogging.