Delhi PWD Minister Satyendra Jain blamed "unplanned drainage system" for the massive waterlogging on roads the city witnessed after heavy rain on Wednesday.
"Delhi's sewerage system has not been designed for heavy rain and roads are flooded whenever the capital witnesses heavy showers," he said. Management of drainage in the city has been divided among the Public Works Department (PWD) and three civic bodies. The PWD has put in service 825 water lifting pumps on various roads which were waterlogged due to incessant rains.
"PWD had made all arrangements to cater to any exigencies resulting out of it. The PWD teams were active right from the morning and started attending to waterlogging complaints timely so as to cause minimum inconvenience to the commuters during morning peak hours of traffic," said a Government official.
"As a part of preparedness, PWD deployed in all 296 portable pumps besides the permanent installation of 529 pumps along with 1,078 workmen, and 178 fully-equipped maintenance vans with the required material/tools and plants at the strategic locations all over Delhi to deal with the situation," the official added.
Government sources said the problem of waterlogging at many locations occurred again due to flow of silt/sludge from MCD drains upstream of PWD drains "which is contrary to the claims made by all the three municipal corporations about desilting of their drains".