The Delhi government’s Irrigation and Flood Control department has successfully completed a high-priority drainage project in Aya Nagar village in a step towards transforming civic infrastructure in neglected parts of the city.
According to the department, this development has addressed the chronic issue of water logging which affected the village’s main Sunday market road, which is said to be one of the worst-affected places of the area during monsoons.
The project is now fully functional, and the entire drainage system, including the Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) box drain and 1,000 mm diameter outfall pipelines, is operational.
With this, the decades-old problem of rainwater stagnation and flooding in Aya Nagar stands resolved, ahead of the ongoing monsoon season.
According to I&FC minister Parvesh Verma, resolving the drainage crisis in Aya Nagar was not just an engineering mission but a commitment to give relief and dignity to a population that had been ignored for years.
“This is a symbol of the change we are bringing across Delhi: where the toughest problems are tackled head-on, not postponed,” he added.
Verma mentioned that earlier the people here had accepted flooding as their fate, but with the permanent solution in place, they will finally experience a monsoon without fear.
He said that completion of this project reflects Delhi government’s focus on long-pending civic issues in peripheral and semi-urban areas, while it also sets a template for similar interventions across flood-prone zones of the capital.
Aya Nagar, located in Chhattarpur Assembly constituency along the Mehrauli-Gurugram Road, is the last village in Delhi’s southern fringe, which sits on undulating Aravali terrain, and for years, faced serious water logging problems due to unregulated and rapid urban growth.
Earlier, the natural storm-water from the higher reaches of the village used to drain into ravines, but the unplanned construction and encroachments blocked those natural courses, leaving the arterial road submerged even after moderate rains.
This persistent flooding not only disrupted traffic and access to the market, but also severely affected local businesses, residential colonies, and school-going children.
The lack of proper drainage had turned daily life into a struggle for thousands of residents.
To solve the problem comprehensively, the I&FC department prepared a technically robust and sustainable drainage plan, that included construction of a RCC box culvert drain along the Sunday Market Road.
The plan also had installation of 1000 mm diameter pipelines to channel the stormwater into nearby forest ravines, restoring the outfall route.
Notably, the implementation was far from easy, as the only viable alignment for the outfall pipeline passed through the narrow, congested lanes of the unauthorized colony in Aya Nagar, posing significant challenges for movement of heavy machinery and excavation equipment.
Additionally, the area was riddled with overlapping underground and overhead utilities—such as IGL gas pipelines, BSES power lines, DJB water lines, and telecom cables.
Despite these hurdles, engineers and field teams worked day and night, executing deep excavations up to 18 feet with utmost care and safety.
Special steel girders and MS plates were used for confined trenching to prevent soil slippage and protect nearby homes and public infrastructure.
The successful completion of this project reflects the Delhi government’s focus on long-pending civic issues in peripheral and semi-urban areas. It also sets a template for similar interventions across flood-prone zones of the capital.