Guwahati, March 14: In a bid to mitigate the city's artificial flood problem, the State government is aiming to complete the first phase of desiltation of drains within this month under the Mission Flood Free Guwahati.

Similarly, the authorities concerned will monitor the illegal structures plaguing Guwahati's drainage system by using satellite imagery, and strict action has been planned against such violations.

Addressing a press conference at Dispur on Thursday, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah stated that in order to monitor the desiltation work, the government has formed 21 Monitoring Committees under the DDMA Act, comprising department officials, ward representatives, and local citizens.

The department has also chalked out a standard operating procedure for these committees to ensure effective monitoring. He also instructed the committees to closely observe work done by contractors who have submitted unusually low bids so that they do not compromise on quality.

"The desiltation works are already under way and the first phase is targeted for completion by March to prevent the floods which generally occur during April. I urge the people of Guwahati to actively monitor the desiltation work in their respective locality and give us feedback," Mallabaruah said.

The Minister also stated that 100 per cent mitigation of flood in Guwahati is not possible through one phase of desiltation as drainage of the city gets filled up with huge amounts of silt after each spell of rainfall. So, the desiltation work will continue in a phased manner up to December.

Along with other instructions in the SoP, the department mentioned that contractors will not be allowed to store the desilted materials for more than two hours along the roadside after extracting the same from the drains. Similarly, the local monitoring committees will also check the maintenance of gradient in the riverbed and drainage.

"In main drains, we are using super sucker machines and in smaller drains GMC, GMDA, and PWD are manually carrying out the desiltation work. Work is also in progress in the Khanapara area to divert water coming from the Meghalaya hills. Hundred per cent mitigation of the artificial flood problem in Guwahati is not possible in one year, and as part of the long-term plan to address the problem, work is under way in areas like Rukminigoan, Juripar and Survey," he said.

According to the Minister, there are encroachments on drains at Juripar and they will be evicted soon. He also informed that similar kind of encroachment was also affecting the drainage system in different areas of the city, where some drains have turned into bottleneck due to encroachments.

"As part of the step to ad-dress artificial flooding, we have submitted a proposal to the Union government to rejuvenate and increase the area of Silsako Beel. The Town and Country Planning department has undertaken technical studies, and the government is implementing advanced drainage solutions to channelize the excess water towards Silsako Beel and eventually to the Brahmaputra river," the Minister said.

Mallabaruah informed that the work on water retention tank at Silsako Beel will be accelerated after the monsoon season. As part of that, the hotel management institute in the area will be shifted to GS Road, the cooperative institute will be relocated to Rehabari and tennis court will be shifted to Sarusajai. Similarly, Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development will be shifted by April and Ginger Hotel has already been instructed to relocate.

The Silsako retention tank will comprise around 800 bighas of land. Similar kind of retention tanks will also be developed in Boragaon area, to divert excess water to the Brahmaputra through Deepor Beel. The State government will arrange land in the area for the project through the TDR policy. The government will take this step as it is an eco-sensitive zone, but most people have myadi land. Around 70-80 households agreed to give around 250 bighas of land through TDR policy.

Further initiatives include the creation of open spaces and a legacy urban forest at Boragaon to promote ecological sustainability.

- By Staff Reporter