Despite hefty spending, no solution to waterlogging yet

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 22

Even as money amounting to several hundred crores is said to have been sanctioned, a little portion of which have also been spent, the city has failed to get rid of its age-old problem of waterlogging and sewerage choking.

For years, residents have been facing trouble due to dug roads for JICA (Japan International Cooperative Agency) project, AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transportation) and recently for the Smart City project.

The much-hyped JICA project, initiated in 2012, was aimed at benefiting areas lacking sewerage facilities for a long time. As per the project report, Rs 752 crore has been sanctioned for Amritsar which has been divided into north, south and south east zones. An amount of Rs 160 crore for the north zone, Rs 70 crore for the south and Rs 113 crore was meant to be spent for the south east zone on the Japanese way to revamp the sewerage system.

The government had also sanctioned Rs 100 crore funds for infrastructure development under the AMRUT project. The Smart City project, which is still under way, has also pumped a large sum of money into the infrastructure sector.

Residents say ill-planned projects, motivated by political considerations, have failed to improve the infrastructure despite spending a huge sum of money. “In the inner city areas, water is still stagnant in streets even after scanty rain. Same is the case with the famed Heritage Street which was revamped recently,” says Shamsher Singh, a resident.

While there is no provision of a separate storm sewerage in most of the city areas, the same is discharged into the one meant for home and commercial waste which is already on the brink of collapse. The choked sewer line, when fails to drain out rainwater, it leads to sewage stagnation in streets. Frequent de-silting and a separate storm sewerage seems is the best solution, say residents.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Sandhu said tenders for de-silting had already been floated and it would begin shortly. He said the government was also trying to complete the ongoing projects at the earliest to solve the problem.