Ludhiana: The Ludhiana municipal corporation has finally started desilting the long-neglected, covered drain at Shivaji Nagar and another critical channel passing through Dhoka Mohalla. The long-awaited move has brought relief to local residents who face severe street flooding and indoor sewage backflow every monsoon due to clogged rainwater drainage.Civic officials have committed to completing the cleaning operations within the next 10 days, provided the work is not disrupted by early rainfall. Both locations are classified as highly vulnerable chokepoints where concrete waste, silt, and debris have severely restricted water flow, threatening livelihoods in Shivaji Nagar, New Shivaji Nagar, Narendra Nagar, and Dharampura.The dynamic mirrors last year’s failure when administrative delays pushed desilting schedules directly into the arrival of the monsoon, leaving the work incomplete. Area councillor Manju Aggarwal stated that despite repeated official assurances and explicit intervention from the Mayor, field execution was continuously stalled on the ground.According to Aggarwal, residents had threatened to launch a public protest in the first week of June to fight the stagnation. In response to the agitation, civic officials blamed the delay on recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids conducted at the business premises of municipal contractors.With the cleanup now underway, parallel desilting efforts have also kicked off at Dhoka Mohalla, where managing heavy rainwater runoff remains a major infrastructural hurdle. The civic body maintains that it is on track to clear both arterial channels before seasonal downpours submerge the area.
