The monsoon is round the corner but the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has still not desilted the major nallahs (deep drains) of the city due to which there is every possibility of flash floods, especially in the low lying areas of the city during monsoon season.
The monsoon generally hits Jammu and Kashmir by the end of June. To avoid flash floods and choking of nallahs (deep drains) during monsoon season, the JMC conducts massive exercise to desilt all the major deep drains of the city around 3 months before the monsoons season.
“This time the rate contracts for hiring vehicles were not finalized due to which the desilting work of the nallahs was started around one month late,” Chief Transport Officer (CTO), JMC, Mohd Tariq told Greater Kashmir.
He said that the work for desilting of city’s deep drains has been “going on war footing” and expressed hope that the “work will be completed before the onset of monsoon”.
He said that desilting work in some of the deep drains has been completed, while in the remaining ones, the work is going on. “We hope that the desilting work will be completed before monsoon,” the CTO said.
He said that nallahs at Digiana, Trikuta Nagar, Roop Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Vishal nagar, Nanak Nagar, Colonel Colony (Talab Tillo) and in some other areas are yet to be desilted.
The CTO said that in the congested areas of the city where the machinery can not be taken, the desilting work is being done manually, which often takes time.
The JMC has engaged 12 vehicles, 6 its own and 6 hired, for lifting the garbage taken out of the nallahs and dispose it off Kot Bhalwal.
Around two hundred (200) men have also been deployed by the JMC to complete the task before the rainy season, sources said.