Failure of authorities to undertake de-silting of drains is one of the major reasons for water-logging in the summer capital.
Experts said the drainage system in the city has lostcarrying capacity as the entire network has got choked owing to accumulation ofsilt.
This was once again evident on Thursday when a few hours ofrains inundated the commercial hub Lal Chowk and several city areas.
Despite having three agencies – SMC, UEED and ERA — mandatedto manage drainage system in Srinagar, de-silting of drains was pending for thepast several years.
“Problem of water logging will persist until the authoritiesdon’t resolve the root cause. They must go for immediate de-silting of existingdrainage system. Constructing effective drainage system may fall under thecategory of long term planning,” said an expert.
He said cleaning of drains will increase water carryingcapacity which otherwise overflows, submerging most areas of Srinagar.
He added that under-sized and choked roadside surface drainsand pipelines need to be replaced.
“Hopefully, the authorities will learn from the pastexperiences and adopt pro-active approach to tackle this problem,” said MushtaqAhmad, a trader at Regal Chowk.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) city drainageexecutive engineer Imtiyaz Qazi said they have prepared Rs 14 crore annualde-silting proposal. “But owing to non-availability of the funds the proposalhasn’t materialized.”
He said SMC would float tenders in next few days forundertaking de-siltation of drains in Lal Chowk and adjacent areas.
On Thursday (July 25), most areas of the summer capitalSrinagar remained water-logged, causing hardships to commuters, after earlymorning rains.
The knee-deep water on roads, including Residency Road, MARoad, Hari Singh High Street caused hardships to commuters. It also led tomassive traffic jam.