Najafgarh drain survey to finish in Feb 2025, other basins by April

The new drainage master plan in the city is expected to be ready by April next year, a Public Works Department official said on Sunday. While 63% of the survey work on the Najafgarh basin is done, its final project report is likely to be submitted by February next year.
Detailed project report on the remaining two basins — Barapullah and Trans-Yamuna — is expected to be wrapped up by April next year. Work on the master plan report of the three basins was handed over to PWD in 2021.
According to a PWD report datedSeptember 29 this year,work on the report of East Delhi’s Trans-Yamuna basin is 13% done and 24% ground survey is completed in the Barapullah basin. The detailed project report will contain the analysis on deficiency in the existing network, vulnerable points in the city, and need for additional drainage volume.
The city currently operates on a 48-year-old drainage master plan from 1976 which was prepared by Irrigation and Flood Control department. With repeated episodes of heavy urban flooding during monsoons leading to waterlogged arterial stretches and traffic snarls, it is now necessary to come up with an updated plan to cater to the current situation.
The road owning agencies had carried out capacity enhancement at some of the most vulnerable waterlogging points in 2022 and 2023 but these interventions have proved to be ineffective during heavy spells this year when Minto bridge, Pul Prahladpur and major underpasses witnessed recurring inundation.
Delhi’s drainage system is divided in three basins– Najafgarh, Trans-Yamuna, and Barapullah — flowing out in Yamuna via 22 drains. Najafgrah basin is the largest of the three, covering 918 sqkm, while the Barapullah basin covers 376 sqkm and the Trans-Yamuna basin — with outlets in Ghazipur and Shahdara drains — is spread over 200 sqkm. “The Najafgarh basin covers around 61% of Delhi’s area. It has three smaller sub-basins in Alipur, Kanjhawala and Najafgarh catchment,” a PWD official added.
According to the estimates by PWD, the current drainage system can cater to a maximum of 50mm rainfall in a day. Delhi’s total monsoon rainfall this year was 1,029.9mm, which is the seventh-highest monsoon rainfall in the Capital’s history. This is significantly higher than the average of 640.4mm. The city saw 39 rainy days, which was more than the usual and heavy downpours over a few days contributed to the overall rainfall.
In 2009, the then Lieutenant Governor, Tejendra Khanna, had asked the civic agencies and all stakeholders to prepare a new master plan for Delhi’s watershed and drainage system. An IIT report was not accepted by government’s technical expert committee.
In 2021, the government appointed PWD as the nodal agency to work on a report by IIT-Delhi, the ‘Drainage Master Plan’, and turn the report’s recommendations into actionable intervention points to tackle waterlogging.
A PWD official said that the first attempt for hiring a consultant for implementation of drainage master plan could not find any eligible takers, so the process was revised, leading to further delays.
The Delhi government on April 29, ordered that all 22 drains in Delhi to be managed by the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department. Formal handover of the drains is likely to be completed only by the end of the year, officials said. Fourteen of these drains currently come under the jurisdiction of MCD, four are already with the I&FC two are under PWD and two others – Khyber pass and Sonia Vihar had a jurisdiction overlap between the MCD and the I&FC.
Diwan Singh, an environmental activist who took up the Yamuna protection initiative in 2007, said that the process for development of new drainage master plan has been extremely slow. “It is clear that Delhi’s existing network cannot handle the amount of rain it receives. Improper desilting further worsens the situation. Unless the work is expedited and intervention made, we are likely to see similar situation next monsoon too. The plan should also focus on groundwater recharge, directing rainwater towards waterbodies and sustainable outfall in Yamuna,” Singh said.