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Letter to Hon'ble LG _new bridge planned over river Yamuna _ - 4.7 ...

Letter to Hon'ble LG _new bridge planned over river Yamuna _ - 4.7 ...

Letter to Hon'ble LG _new bridge planned over river Yamuna _ - 4.7 ...

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Natural meander in the <strong>river</strong> in 22 km of <strong>river</strong> in urban Delhi<br />

The creation of pseudo <strong>bridge</strong>s on it results in ‘fixing’ and ‘freezing’ in time and space the current<br />

<strong>river</strong> meander within the guide bunds of the existing pseudo <strong>bridge</strong>s and thus effectively<br />

‘channelises’ the <strong>river</strong>. It may be noted that such ‘channelisation by default’ of a naturally<br />

meandering <strong>river</strong> could prove deleterious <strong>to</strong> the <strong>bridge</strong>s themselves during the times of floods.<br />

Today in most parts of the world where such past channelisation had been carried out, it is being<br />

scoffed at and actively discouraged after their sad experiences of devastations from the floods made<br />

worse due <strong>to</strong> the channelisation of their naturally meandering <strong>river</strong>s.<br />

It is a strange irony that while the state policy in the city as enshrined in the Master Plan (MPD<br />

2021) has abandoned the concept of channelisation of the <strong>river</strong> after actively pursuing it in the<br />

1990s, it continues <strong>to</strong> practice channelisation by default in form of the construction of pseudo<br />

<strong>bridge</strong>s on the <strong>river</strong>.<br />

Is it <strong>to</strong>o much <strong>to</strong> ask our planners <strong>to</strong> learn from the mistakes of others and <strong>to</strong> safeguard our flood<br />

plains while we still have them, rather lament later when all would have been lost?<br />

Avoidable, unnecessary and even risky impoundment of flood waters<br />

When <strong>bridge</strong>s (pseudo) start <strong>to</strong> function as barrages, the obvious outcome is the impoundment of<br />

flood waters behind their raised approach roads cum cross embankments. In normal course this<br />

flood water should have after spreading <strong>over</strong> the flood plain, flowed down the stream in channels<br />

more than one (many of which become active in times of floods) during the times of floods.<br />

Such an artificial and avoidable impoundment of water plays havoc with the underlying aquifer<br />

system and <strong>over</strong>-saturates them in no time.<br />

Often such short and quick time <strong>over</strong>-saturation of aquifers (unless pumped out in quick time) could<br />

prove disastrous for nearby structures including residential buildings by submerging their<br />

foundations with standing water. The most unfortunate incident on 15 November 2010 in the Lalita

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