Noida: Not cleaned since June last year, drains across the city remain clogged with plastic, horticulture waste, garbage and construction debris, raising fears of waterlogging, traffic disruption, foul odour and disease outbreak.City’s 354-kilometre drainage network comprises 190 major and minor drains. In May, Noida Authority CEO had set a one-month deadline for cleaning drains. District Development Resident Welfare Association (DDRWA) claimed they alerted Noida Authority CEO about the delays, but officials began desilting work only at the last minute.“The drains were cleaned in June last year and have been neglected since. Although a new cleaning contract was awarded in Dec, the work remains unfinished. Even a single heavy rainfall will cause the drains to overflow,” Mohinder Singh, Sector 40 RWA general secretary, said.RWA general secretaries from sectors 44 and 26 pointed to a deeper problem — internal rainwater drains feed into peripheral networks that have also gone without desilting, leaving residential runoff with no outlet and creating an immediate flood risk. Local RWAs have submitted photographic evidence to the Authority showing the condition of a major drain in Sector 51, but say they have received no update on progress or timelines.Sanjeev Kumar, senior vice-president of DDRWA, said that despite an estimated Rs 11 crore annual allocation for drain maintenance, progress on the ground remained slow. Silt extracted from drains is often left on the banks instead of being carted away, the RWA body said, allowing subsequent rain to wash it back into the network and undoing the work already done. To address this, the DDRWA urged contractors to clear dredged silt within three hours of excavation and called for joint resident-Authority inspections. “We urged the Authority to fix a civic calendar to institutionalise drain-desilting efforts and ensure thorough maintenance year round,” said NP Singh, DDRWA president.
Residents say the drains were cleaned in June last year
The situation in Greater Noida is similarly precarious, with heavily clogged drains raising the risk of waterlogging after a single downpour. Surajpur is among the worst-affected areas, with several main drains yet to be cleaned.Earlier, the Noida Authority CEO instructed officials from the water, civil, health, horticulture, and electrical departments to expedite cleanliness and maintenance work across the city, with a particular focus on desilting and cleaning drains before the onset of the monsoon, and set a one-month deadline. Noida Authority officials maintain that desilting operations are underway.
