GUWAHATI, Nov 5 � The expert committee formed by the Chief Minister to study the flood problem of Guwahati and suggest remedial measures has suggested certain actions for the successful execution of the project.
The first formal meeting of the seven-member expert committee was held today at the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) premises here.
Prof NK Choudhury, former Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University, Prof Utpal Sarma, Director of Nirma University, Ahmedabad, AK Mitra, Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee, Water Resources Department and Dr BC Kalita, former Head of the Geography department of Cotton College, attended the meeting along with Member Secretary Dr M Angamuhtu, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GMDA.
Other committee members, Prof Nayan Sarma of IIT Roorkee and Dr Arup Kumar Sarma, Head of Department of Civil Engineering of IIT Guwahati, who could not attend the meeting, sent their suggestions.
�It was mainly for preliminary discussions where we decided on the course of action with regard to short, medium and long term plans for tackling the flood problem of the city,� Dr Angamuthu said after the meeting.
He said that on the basis of the discussions, the committee has suggested that Total Station Contour Survey at 0.5 metre interval of the Guwahati Metropolitan Region should be taken up phase-wise and has also recommended that at least 50-60 tipping bucket rain gauges should be installed across the length and breadth of the city with electronic measurement and automatic transmission to a central database in order to monitor and collect rainfall data since distribution of rainfall is not uniform in all places of Guwahati.
Besides, the committee has also suggested that in order to divert the storm water coming from Meghalaya hills and prevent it from entering Guwahati, the PWD (Roads) should be asked to construct side-drains along the newly constructed VIP Road from Koinadhara Hills to Rani Patgaon along the southern side of NH 37, while the side-drain proposed along the NH 37 from Khanapara to Jalukbari should be sufficiently wide for allowing maximum portion of the Meghalaya storm-waters to be diverted along these two drains.
�On November 29, the committee will interact with concerned government departments including GMDA, GMC, PWD (Roads), Water Resources, Forests and others to take stock of the respective action plans drawn up them with regard to the effort to tackle the menace of flooding in the city,� Dr Angamuthu said.
