To escape floods, spill channels to be desilted

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 10

To avert threat of floods to Srinagar and its adjoining areas in the future, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department is going to start desilting of flood spill channels in a phased manner.

In the first phase, the department would start dredging the flood spill channel on the seven-km Bemina Bund- Narbal stretch on the city outskirts.

Directions in this regard were passed today by Minister for Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control Sukhnandan Kumar Choudhary, who visited flood-affected areas in Bemina, Shariefabad, Narbal and Mirgund in north Kashmir, an official spokesman said in a statement.

While inspecting Bemina Bund, Imam Hussain Hospital, Hamdania Colony, Hajj House, JVC Hospital in Srinagar and Shariefabad, Narbal and Mirgund in Budagm and Baramulla districts, the Minister directed the authorities concerned to complete the work within one month so that vast areas of the Srinagar city were saved from the threat of floods.

At Hajj House, the Minister inspected earth filling work of Bund which was damaged due to September 2014 floods. He also directed officials to remove encroachments on the banks of the flood channel.

He later visited breach site of flood channel at Shariefabad, where he instructed the authorities to float tenders for construction of a bridge for which a proposal of Rs 20 crore had already been submitted to the government.

Choudhary visited a flood channel at Mirgund Bund also and instructed the authorities to pr-epare estimates for desilting the patch.

During the visit, he was accompanied by Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education and Youth Services and Sports Imran Ansari, the spokesman said.