NGT Chairman stresses on need to clean Najafgarh drain

New Delhi [India], December 31 (ANI): NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Lt Governor of Delhi VK Saxena on Saturday jointly inspected the cleaning and rejuvenation efforts being undertaken at the Najafgarh drain, stated an official release from the Raj Niwas.
Justice Goel and L-G Saxena, accompanied by the Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the various stakeholder departments/agencies, took a boat ride from Bharat Nagar (Ashok Vihar) to Timarpur along the drain and took stock of the cleaning operations.
Justice Goel, after the inspection, appreciated the efforts being undertaken and expressed the hope that the same would fetch desirable results, in terms of reducing pollution in the Yamuna, as also a revival of the Sahibi River, that the drain once was.
Ruing the fact that persistent court monitoring and orders in the past had fetched little results in terms of cleaning the Najafgarh Drain, the NGT Chairperson asked the L-G to ensure that the efforts being undertaken as of now, are taken to their logical conclusion in a time-bound manner, stated an official release from the Raj Niwas.
It said that the Lt Governor on his part assured him that all the 122 feeder drains bringing sewage and silt into the Najafgarh Drain will be trapped at the earliest and no stone will be left unturned to ensure that the drain gets rejuvenated into its original avatar of a river and stops polluting the Yamuna.
NGT Chairperson informed about works on cleaning and rejuvenation of the 57-km Drain using the extremely cost-effective Partial Gravitational De-silting Technology and trapping of 32 feeder drains bringing in unfettered sewage and silt into the drain, in the first phase on the stretch between Timarpur and Bharat Nagar. While the works of de-silting and restoration of embankments from Wazirabad to Timarpur had been completed in November end, further cleaning works on the 7.5 km stretch between Mall Road Bridge and Bharat Nagar too has been completed, according to the official release.
Apathy and neglect on the part of government departments and agencies over the decades have converted this thriving and treasured, living water body into a stinking dead drain, apart from contributing maximum to the pollution of Yamuna and it is a constant health hazard to the people living in its vicinity, apart from causing water-logging in its catchment area due to its inability to carry water.
According to an official release, the drain has become an almost stagnant reservoir of silt sewerage and sludge with over 80 lakh tonnes of underwater solidified garbage/silt mounts, which has severely affected its flow and carrying capacity.
Efforts during the past couple of months have led to more than 50,000 tonnes of silt being removed and efforts are on to totally de-silt the water body in a time-bound manner. In addition to this, 27,000 tonnes of surface garbage/silt, mostly accumulated on the outer periphery of the drain have been removed and deposited on the banks. (ANI)