G20 Summit: PWD, Delhi civic body told to frame contingency plan for waterlogging in case of heavy rain

New Delhi: Ahead of the G20 Summit here next month, the Public Works Department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been directed to frame a contingency plan to deal with possible waterlogging in case of heavy rain in the city, according to an L-G office statement on Saturday.

Many parts of Delhi, including those close to the venue of the upcoming G20 Summit meeting at Pragati Maidan, faced flooding last month due to rains and the overflowing Yamuna river. The G20 Summit under India's presidency will take place on September 9 and 10. Chairing a meeting with heads of stakeholder agencies, including the PWD, MCD, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Environment and Forest Department, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Saturday reviewed the preparedness for the G-20 Summit.

The "persistent problem" of defacement of walls, poles and metro pillars by commercial and political organisations through posters and graffiti was raised in the meeting. Instructions were issued to the district monitoring coordinators to deal with the matter with a heavy hand, the statement said. Revamp of areas around some hotels like Radisson Blue in Mahipalpur, Surya Hotel in New Friends Colony, Eros Hotel in Nehru Place, Hotel Lalit and Hyatt Regency, was also raised in the meeting. Specific instructions were issued to deck up the surroundings of these hotels on a mission mode, it said. "Thirty mobile teams of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will be constantly on the roads till the conclusion of the G-20 events and any violation detected by these teams will be prosecuted on the spot," said the statement from the L-G office. During the meeting, the L-G noted "visible improvement" since his regular inspections from July 11.

While works related to the G20 event had been going on as per schedule, major outstanding works included non-disposal of construction and demolition waste and the improvement of pavements on the 61 roads, it said. Saxena, who has so far conducted over two-dozen inspections of roads and other infrastructure, has laid special thrust on disposal of construction and demolition waste, removal of encroachments, repair of footpaths and landscaping, the statement said. There has been a "marked" improvement in horticultural efforts on part of the DDA, NDMC and MCD while the Delhi Metro has been relentlessly ensuring cleanliness at its stations and removal of posters and graffiti from its pillars, it said