Drones deployed to monitor drain cleaning status in Ghaziabad
The Ghaziabad municipal corporation area has a presence of 553 big and small drains for which the cleaning exercise was taken up by the agency. The major drain cleaning exercise was completed on June 20 while work is still underway in some smaller drains
The Ghaziabad municipal corporation is making arrangements to avoid waterlogging in the city ahead of the monsoon season.
The civic agency has deployed drones to monitor the status of cleaning of at least 40 major drains across the city. Officials said that a review of the cleaning of big drains has been undertaken in all the five zones.
The corporation area has a presence of 553 big and small drains for which the cleaning exercise was taken up by the agency. The major drain cleaning exercise was completed on June 20 while work is still underway in some smaller drains.
“To monitor the status of big drains, we have deployed a drone each in all the five zones — Kavi Nagar, Ghaziabad city, Mohan Nagar, Vasundhara and Vijay Nagar. The aim is to ensure that the cleaning process is complete,” said Mahendra Singh Tanwar, municipal commissioner.
“The drones give us a bird’s eye view of the cleaning which is not possible with manual surveillance. We are ensuring that the city doesn’t suffer from waterlogging issues during the upcoming monsoon season,” Tanwar added.
For tackling the waterlogging issues, the corporation has also formed quick reaction teams in each of the five zones who will rush with equipment in case of water-logging.
“The corporation has taken up cleaning of drains and their efforts will be tested once the rainy season begins. Kaushambi is a low-lying area and when the Sahibabad drain gets high water discharge in monsoon, our locality suffers from waterlogging,” said VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi apartments RWA.
“It has come to our knowledge that cleaning work at ground level is still not fully complete and silt from the drains is still dumped along roadsides. The entire drain cleaning exercise will be put to test when the city receives monsoon rain,” said Himanshu Mittal, councillor from Kavi Nagar.