Ejection drive will start for flood-free Guwahati: Minister

Guwahati: An ejection drive will soon be launched to clear encroachments along drains and rivers in Guwahati to make the city flood-free, a minister said on Friday.

Assam Urban Affairs Minister Ashok Singhal said the campaign will be carried out as part of ‘Mission Flood Free Guwahati’, under which work has already begun to clean drains and rivers in the city.
“We have planned evictions from many places in Guwahati where drains and rivers have encroached,” Singhal said while talking to reporters after a review meeting of the initiative.

“As a result of the encroachment, these outlets have become narrow and the width of the water channel has been compromised,” he said.

The Minister said that the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan has prepared a list of these places and the evictions will be done within the next 15 days.
The meeting was attended by engineers and officials from PWD, Water Resources, Assam Power Distribution Corporation Limited, North East Frontier Railway, BSNL, GMC, Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority and other concerned departments and agencies.

He also said that as part of the mission, cleaning of roads and rivers in the city has started.
He added that siltation of drains is being done by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) by the Public Works Department (PWD) and five major and minor rivers that pass through the city.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma chaired a meeting last month to discuss ways to make the state’s largest city free from artificial floods.

The Chief Minister had said that the government would bring in engineering solutions to solve the problems of flooding and water infiltration in the city, besides clearing encroachments and de-silting water-carrying channels.