Underpass flooding in E Delhi annual ritual (Time of India 11 September 2011)

Tags: PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, ITO chungi underpass
NEW DELHI: Flooded with water and a scene of complete chaos after Friday's heavy downpour, the ITO chungi underpass in east Delhi was waiting to be cleaned up even on Saturday. The carriageways of the underpass – a crucial link with NOIDA on one hand and Shastri Park, Laxmi Nagar and Geeta Colony on the other – remained under water. The PWD's explanation: The rain was just too much and the booster pumps couldn't do the job.
Till Saturday afternoon, commuters were forced to slow down as they tried to negotiate the underpass. This was better than Friday night when commuters just couldn't use the underpass, where may cars were under water. So, they used alternative routes.
PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said he had no information that the underpass was flooded, but if that was the case, he would look into it. After checking with his officials, Chauhan told TOI the water was being removed and that by evening the place would be dry. "The clean-up is happening and about four to five inches of water remain in some sections which too will clear up shortly," Chauhan told TOI around 6.00 pm on Saturday.
Though Chauhan blamed the unprecedented rain, this underpass has been plagued with this problem ever since it was inaugurated in 2009. The PWD is seen firefighting every time it rains.
TOI had reported in October 2009 that barely two hours after Chauhan opened one carriageway for traffic, the stretch got flooded due to the bursting of an old Delhi Jal Board pipeline. This resulted in a massive traffic jam at the crossing on Vikas Marg during the evening peak hours. At that time the city was all dug up and work was on at a frenetic pace to meet the Commonwealth Games deadline.
In July 2010 too the underpass had got flooded after a heavy downpour and the PWD had struggled for one nearly an entire day to clean the mess. Then the agency had claimed that though they had procured two pumps to drain out water, they could not be put to use.
On August 13 last year once again it was reported that rain water had collected in the underpass at ITO Chungi. The official reason was that the two pumps installed at the underpass had failed to work. The PWD engineers stepped in to fix the problem.