Please check out the following story at the Hindustan Times website. When we wrote it, we thought we were addressing a limited audience. Continuing votes have proved us wrong; clearly a lot of Indians think the issue of urban drainage is worth worrying about.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=287aaca5-8ec4-417d-ab89-c7c043cc06dc&&Headline=A+drain+on+development
Monday, August 6, 2007
Delhi floods and Bluelines/ august 2007
When we were writing our page on urban floods, sitting in Delhi, the experts had told us that the capital does not have a fraction of Mumbai's capacity to deal with floods. And they seemed so correct last week when the monsoon came back to Delhi after a vacation. It only took a few hours of rains for every crossing from ITO to Dhaula Kuan to get innundated. God forbid that we get the kind of rains that Mumbai got back in 2005, when it poured nonstop for 24 hours.
In a capital which was already held at ransom by the withdrawal of Bluelines for inspections, the rains just added to the choas and confusion on the roads. With hardly 3 or 4 Bluelines running on each route, waiting for them at the open bus stops just added to the stormy nightmare. Getting into the buses also proved to be a test of one's patience with these buses crawling through the cities' water logged roads at a snail's pace. The ones who caught the buses were the lucky ones but even they had to get wet and dirty, when asked by the conducters to get down and give the buses a push.
In a capital which was already held at ransom by the withdrawal of Bluelines for inspections, the rains just added to the choas and confusion on the roads. With hardly 3 or 4 Bluelines running on each route, waiting for them at the open bus stops just added to the stormy nightmare. Getting into the buses also proved to be a test of one's patience with these buses crawling through the cities' water logged roads at a snail's pace. The ones who caught the buses were the lucky ones but even they had to get wet and dirty, when asked by the conducters to get down and give the buses a push.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Mumbai floods 2005 III
Rescue worker rescue the residence of shanti nager after the water level of Mithi river rose above the danger level on Saturday. HT PHOTO BY MANOJ PATIL. 30/06/2007
Delhi floods 2003
Early morning Indian commuters travel through a flooded street after a night of heavy monsoon rains in New Delhi July 11, 2003. The progress of the monsoon in India, where more than two-thirds of the billion strong population lives off agriculture, is keenly watched by farmers, economists, bond traders and stock brokers. REUTERS/B. Mathur
Mumbai floods 2005 II
People walk home as traffic came to a standstill following heavy rains at Chunabhatti.(7.30am).
HT Photo by Vijayanand Gupta.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Mumbai floods 2005
People rescue an old man from a submerged train near Chunabhatti Station in Mumbai. After incessant rains slashed the city in August 2005, thousands of people were stranded in their offices, buses, schools and so on. Photo: Vijayanand Gupta
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ban plastic bags
After reading our special page, S Bhatt, a reader, wrote to us that we should do stories on how plastic bags are clogging our drains and use of plastic bags should be immediately banned. This, he says will reduce the problem and our our cities will become clean.
In fact, Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to ban use of plastic bags. Delhi too started the process few years before, but nobody follows and allmost all grocerrs, vegetable sellers and even high end department stores still gives plastic bags.
In fact, Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to ban use of plastic bags. Delhi too started the process few years before, but nobody follows and allmost all grocerrs, vegetable sellers and even high end department stores still gives plastic bags.
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