Rainwater enters homes, agitated residents block Delhi-Meerut Road - Hindustan Times
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Rainwater enters homes, agitated residents block Delhi-Meerut Road

By, Ghaziabad
Sep 02, 2021 11:58 PM IST

A group of about 200 residents from Patel Nagar 2 and Valmiki Kunj localities staged a protest at the busy Meerut tri-junction on Thursday morning, affecting the movement of traffic on the Delhi-Meerut Road for nearly two hours

A group of about 200 residents from Patel Nagar 2 and Valmiki Kunj localities staged a protest at the busy Meerut tri-junction on Thursday morning, affecting the movement of traffic on the Delhi-Meerut Road for nearly two hours. The protesters were demanding redressal of issues related to waterlogging, as they said that rainwater enters their houses every time there is a heavy rainfall.

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Police officials said that they had to divert traffic through alternative routes to avoid a major jam at the tri-junction.

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The two localities are located adjacent to the Delhi-Meerut Road which witnesses the movement of about 120,000 passenger car units a day. The median of the road is being used by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) for developing the regional rapid transit system (RRTS) project.

The residents said that their localities are affected since last year when the RRTS project has started.

“It is due to the construction activities that the drain outside our localities overflows and the rainwater enters our homes whenever it rains heavily. Rainwater has entered my house several times this season. On Thursday, it rained around 7am and the water inside my house was there till 5pm,” said Charanjeet Singh, a resident of Patel Nagar 2.

“We cannot even flush out water as all the lanes and roads get waterlogged after the rainfall,” he added.

Mahender Singh, a resident of Valmiki Kunj, said that dozens of houses in the locality have similar problems.

“I also face similar issues. Our ration items get spoiled with water. The conditions are pathetic. We have made several complaints to the municipal corporation officials, but nothing has been done so far,” he said.

Another resident Mahesh Kumar Singh said that women residents also participated in the protest. “There was no other option but to protest as people have suffered time and again during this monsoon season. It is because of construction activities of the project that the waterlogging issues have resulted with greater intensity. It takes hours for water to recede,” he said.

Police officials said that around 200 people gathered at the Meerut tri-junction and protested against the waterlogging in their areas.

“We had to diver the traffic. The diversion on Delhi-Meerut Road was done through ALT Centre Road and Raj Nagar Extension. The jam, which resulted due to the protest, was cleared after about one and half hours,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic).

Officials of NCRTC said that the intensity of rain is higher this season and the two localities are in low-lying areas.

“NCRTC is constructing an elevated RRTS station at Meerut tri-junction where a stormwater drain is passing. In order to maintain the flow of this drain, a pipe of the same width has been inserted, which discharges the water as per the drainage system of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation,” an NCRTC official said in a statement.

The statement also said that NCRTC continuously runs two dewatering pumps to take out extra water from the drain located near the project site.

Pramod Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, said, “Our team of engineers has visited the affected localities. They have assessed the problems and will be taking up rectification measures for waterlogging.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh – from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade.

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