70.6mm rainfall busts NMC’s ‘ready for monsoon’ claims

Nagpur: A single spell of 70. 6 mm rainfall was enough to expose Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) claims of monsoon preparedness, as roads, underpasses and residential colonies across the city went under water between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

The widespread flooding once again raised serious questions over the effectiveness of BJP-led civic body’s annual pre-monsoon desilting exercise despite ruling the NMC for four consecutive terms.The city witnessed a repeat of its familiar monsoon chaos. Water accumulated to knee level at the notorious Manish Nagar, Loha Pul and Mankapur underpasses, disrupting traffic and forcing commuters to take long detours.

These locations have become annual flood hotspots despite repeated assurances from the civic administration that preventive measures were undertaken before the monsoon.Several residential localities also bore the brunt of the downpour. Zingabai Takli, Gorewada, Kamgar Colony, Ekta Colony and Pawan Layout witnessed severe waterlogging, with rainwater entering houses in some areas. Residents spent the night trying to protect household belongings while civic teams were forced to deploy motor pumps to drain out water from inundated homes, streets and even a private hospital in Dharampeth.

Ironically, the flooding happened despite NMC claiming to have completed an extensive summer desilting drive involving the cleaning and deepening of nearly 49 km of rivers and desilting of 227 connected nullahs at a cost of several crores. Thursday’s rain, however, suggested that the exercise did little to improve stormwater discharge, as several roads and internal lanes turned into pools within hours of the rainfall.The civic body’s fire and emergency services department remained on high alert through the night, responding to 17 emergency calls between 4 pm Wednesday and 8 am Thursday. These included 13 incidents of tree falls and four waterlogging complaints. Fire personnel used motor pumps to remove water from affected areas, while teams cleared uprooted trees from Civil Lines, Dattaji Nagar, Gandhibagh, Rajabaksha, Abhyankar Nagar, Ajni, Ambazari Road, district court premises and other parts of the city.

On Untkhana Road, a fallen tree crushed a parked two-wheeler before firefighters removed the obstruction and restored traffic.The first major spell of the season once again highlighted Nagpur’s fragile drainage infrastructure. With India Meteorological Department forecasting more rain in the coming days, Thursday’s flooding renewed fears that heavier showers could trigger a far more serious civic crisis unless long-pending drainage deficiencies are addressed.