Dirty sewer water will stay till the Games

Delhiites will have to wade through murky waters at least till the Commonwealth Games as the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) plans to clean the sewerage pipes only after the sporting extravaganza. Lutyens' Delhi would also not be spared of suffering due to frequent road cave-ins that have been
happening due to leakages from the old rusty pipelines. The civic body is going to clean the 64.5 km sewerage pipes using super sucker machines but only after October.

Most of the sewer pipelines in Lutyens' Delhi are quite old and many have never been cleaned.

"The sewerage network of NDMC area is very vast, approximately 350 kilometres, which was mostly constructed before the country gained Independence. While minor cleaning has been done from time to time, the major work has not been done. We have now decided to clean them," said a senior NDMC official.

The civic agency had taken up the task of cleaning and desilting a few years ago with the help of machines.

The phase I of the work was over and the agency has begun the second phase with a total estimated budget of Rs 6.5 crore.

Mukesh Bhatt, a member of the NDMC council, said, "We discussed the matter whether to take up the cleaning work immediately or wait till the games are over. Considering so much of construction activities already under way, we didn't want to add to the chaos."

"We are also very busy with games-related work and it would have overburdened our staff."

According to the civic agency, once the work is completed more than 62 localities in New Delhi will benefit from it.