CM Rekha Gupta, Union Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal, Delhi Cabinet Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh and others during the unveiling of drainage master plan for Delhi on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Central and Delhi governments have joined hands to find a lasting solution to the national capital’s long saga of waterlogging and flood disruptions by unveiling a drainage master plan on Friday.
Union Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh laid out the blueprint at an event for the ₹57,364-crore plan, which is likely to be spread over five-odd years. The master plan has been divided into three basins – Najafgarh Basin, Barapullah Basin, and Trans-Yamuna Basin – and the work will be executed in five phases.
Delhi faces urban waterlogging every monsoon as the city currently operates on a drainage master plan drawn up in 1976 when its population was around 60 lakh. Since then, the number has grown nearly fourfold.
The consultants were awarded tenders for devising the master plan by the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in 2023 and 2024 and it was submitted to the incumbent BJP government earlier this year. The master plan has missed multiple deadlines set by the Delhi High Court.
The national capital has approximately 18,958 km of drainage network under the jurisdiction of eight different civic agencies and departments including PWD, Irrigation and Flood Control, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Development Authority, New Delhi Municipal Council, etc. The plan has been prepared in consultation with all these civic agencies and departments involved, as per the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
‘Flood-free Delhi’
“Our drainage master plan isn’t just a plan on paper; it’s a guarantee that Delhi will remain flood-free for generations to come. Soon, sewage and water master plans will also be unveiled to make Delhi fully future-ready,” the PWD Minister said at the event, stressing that any drain laid in Delhi from now on will be done as per the master plan.
Mr. Singh said once the Detailed Project Report (DPR) is approved by the government, the PWD will invite tenders from private firms to begin on-ground execution and turn this plan into a long-term solution for Delhi’s drainage needs.
The Chief Minister said Delhiites will not have to worry about rains in the future – they will be able to enjoy it with “chai and pakoda”.
Mr. Lal said the Central government will extend whatever cooperation is needed for the execution of the master plan.
Underlining the importance of a drainage master plan, the High Court said in a judgment dated April 8, 2024, “The urgency for its implementation cannot be emphasised enough; however, the apathy of the administration is evident.”
The court then went on to set deadlines of September 15, November 30 and December 31 last year for finalising the DPRs of the three basins, but all three deadlines were missed.
Series of delays
The Delhi government in 2011 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT Delhi to prepare a drainage master plan for the city.
The premier engineering institute in July 2018 submitted its final report of the master plan, at the heart of which was a mathematical model that could generate solutions for waterlogging in the city.
But in August 2021, a technical expert committee told the Delhi government not to accept the drainage master plan, citing different issues.
Later in 2021, the Delhi government made the PWD the nodal agency to form a drainage master plan by dividing the city into three different basins, using the IIT Delhi master plan as the base.
Published – September 20, 2025 01:19 am IST
