Pune: ₹97.94 Crore Sanctioned For Flood Prevention Measures

The condition of Pune after the first rains has been severely criticised by the citizens and activists. Major parts of the city, including Yerawada, Fergusson College Road, Shivajinagar, Kalyani Nagar, Karve Road, and Kothrud, were submerged in rainwater. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is planning a long-term measure that will help prevent the flood situation in the city.

The civic body last year submitted a ₹357 crore proposal to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the Urban Flood Management project. With the demand, the civic body intends to install stormwater lines and a box drainage system along the road where waterlogging is a chronic issue. The Central government has prepared an Urban Flood Risk Management Scheme. This includes names of seven cities including Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.

According to the 15th Finance Commission for 2021-26, Pune was one of the seven cities shortlisted for urban flood risk management to counteract the negative effects of climate change and excessive rainfall. The civic body submitted a detailed report for implementation by the road department, drainage department, and river improvement department by the project agreements.

To prevent flood situations in various parts of the city, the standing committee has approved a tender of ₹97.94 crore. In this, the PMC will get ₹250 crore in the next five years. The plan prepared by the civic body has been approved by the NDMA. Technology will be used along with fundamental changes to prevent flooding in the city. This fund will be available to Pune City from the 14th and 15th Finance Commission in the next five years.

There are five phases of this work. In the first phase, measures such as laying rainwater drains, making concrete canals, increasing the groundwater level, deepening the drains, and harvesting rainwater by digging trenches in the mountains will be done. For this, a pre-calculation sheet of ₹147 crore had been prepared. This project was supposed to be approved in March, but the proposal was stalled as the administrative process up to the code of conduct was not completed. In the very first meeting after the code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections was over, PMC commissioner Rajendra Bhosale approved this proposal in the standing committee meeting. The tender for this process has been given to Patil Construction and Infrastructure Limited Company.

Ganesh Sonune, head of the PMC's Disaster Management Department, stated, "The process was initiated a year ago. We proposed the NDMA regarding the requirement to tackle the flood situations in Pune and finding a permanent solution to it. After conducting 5-7 meetings, we revised the proposal and finally, it has been finalised and the funds that we are getting will help PMC to better the infrastructure in regards to flood and waterlogging situations."

What will be done?

- Measures will be taken at 60 places with the highest flood risk in the plan

- 600 mm, 900 mm, 1000 mm diameter rain gutters will be laid in various parts of the city

- Bore wells will be made to raise the groundwater level at 1200 places

- The risk of flooding will be reduced by deepening the major drains in the city

- There are many hills in the city, emphasis will be placed on irrigation by digging ditches there