Delhi Authorities drag feet on Cleaning Yamuna

Yamuna may not be a clean and sparkling river during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, as the government had been promising till some time
back. The close to Rs 4,000 crore interceptor sewage system, being touted as the `ultimate' solution for Yamuna's woes, is not likely to be ready by 2010. Now saying the aim was to clean the Yamuna and not necessarily in time for the Games, officials say the project should be complete by 2012.

According to sources in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Engineers India Limited (EIL) submitted the feasibility report recently and the detailed project report is expected to come in another month or so. "We are expecting the detailed project report by December end, which will have to be passed by the Cabinet. Once that is done, we will take up the tendering part of the project and are hopeful that within the next two years, a substantial part of the work should be complete. By April, the tendering should happen,'' said Ramesh Negi, CEO, DJB.

This also means work on Najafgarh drain and supplementary drains, which DJB was hoping would be complete before the 2010 Games, will also take much longer. These two drains carry about 75% of the total sewage load of Delhi. DJB wanted to complete work on these in the first phase, as the third main drain the Shahadara drain does not open out in the main Delhi stretch of the Yamuna and could have been tackled later. In July this year, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had asked EIL to try completing the entire work by 2010 end and not any time later than 2012. "Work starting by April is a highly optimistic view. There could be several hurdles on the way, including acquisition of land. 2012 now seems the probable year for the project to be in any shape,'' said Vinod Jain of NGO Tapas.

However, other work for the project has already started, say DJB officials. "We are in the process of rehabilitating 50km of trunk sewers and work of providing sewarage in 1,500 unauthorised colonies is on,'' said an official.

The project will see construction of interceptor drains along the three main drains of Delhi. The interceptors will trap sewage from all small drains and carry it to sewage treatment plants before emptying it into the main drains. DJB intends cutting down costs even further by making the interceptors only on one side of the drain. For smaller drains that open into the main one from the other side, trenchless technology would be used to carry the untreated water to the interceptor from under the main drain.

This is what is pathetic about the Delhi authorities, as they drag their feet whenever cleaning of the Yamuna river comes up. And if you go and physicaaly see the Yamuna, it looks more like a sewer drain than anything else. With the drainage solution getting post-poned, it is bad news for all the Bed and Breakfast Delhi near the Common waelth games complex, as they will struggle to have fill up their rooms, with people not coming to Delhi, in the event of Delhi commonwealth games not going ahead.