77 Chronic Spots, Crores Spent, Still City Sinks Every Monsoon | Nagpur News

Nagpur: Less than 70mm of rain on Wednesday night was enough to paralyse large parts of the city, submerge roads, flood homes, strand motorists, and claim a life. Citizens are dreading a scenario when the city is hit by a 100mm-plus deluge like the September 2023 floods.The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) admits that the 70-odd flood hotspots continue to haunt the city year after year, despite crores of rupees spent on drainage works and four consecutive BJP terms at the civic body’s helm.Every monsoon, the NMC’s fire and emergency services department prepares for the inevitable. It identifies flood-prone locations, alerts zonal offices, deploys rescue teams and readies dewatering pumps. Yet, the same areas get waterlogged again.The department has again identified 77 low-lying areas and 59 flood-prone basements across the city. The list, prepared before every monsoon based on recurring emergency calls, reads like a record of civic failures. Kachipura, Jhingabai Takli, Pandhrabodi, Mor Bhavan, Mankapur Ring Road, Bajeria, Loha Pul RUB, Mominpura, Rameshwari, Pipla Road, Hudkeshwar Road, Bharatwada, the Pili River belt and many other localities continue to get flooded year after year, suggesting that permanent engineering solutions have failed to replace temporary firefighting measures.Officials said the hotspot list has been shared with all zonal offices to ensure drain cleaning, removal of obstructions and deployment of emergency equipment before heavy rainfall. However, recurring waterlogging at the same locations raises a fundamental question: If these hotspots are known in advance every year, why has the civic body failed to eliminate them?Union minister Nitin Gadkari has repeatedly directed NMC, Nagpur Improvement Trust, PWD, NHAI and other road-owning agencies to work together to permanently resolve chronic waterlogging. Yet, on the ground, the situation remains unchanged.The irony is stark. NMC knows where the city will flood. It knows which basements will be inundated. It knows where rescue teams and pumps will be needed. Still, a 70mm rain spell has exposed the city’s fragile drainage network.