Flood fears loom over Surat

Civic body, state in dispute over building embankments on Tapi river front

Surat is sitting on a potential disaster as the embankment on the Tapi riverfront has got damaged at several places. The callous attitude of the state government and the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is not helping the matter.

"The protective embankment is not there along the Tapi river at some places in Rander, Singanpore, Bharimata, Varachha, Umra, Rundh among others. The total length of the embankment which should be built is nearly nine kilometres," a high-ranking SMC official told Business Standard on the condition of anonymity.

"The current situation makes the city flood-prone. In that case there would be widespread devastation," he said.

"In July 2004, the standing committee of SMC approved the construction of a protective embankment.

"But this involves a lot of issues such as land acquisition, approval from the state government and several other administrative issues," he said.

"It took time to resolve these issues, resulting in a delay to take on the embankment work all these months. Since the monsoon has arrived, it will not be possible to construct the embankment until the rains are over," he added.

Another high-ranking SMC officer said it is not right to blame the corporation for the disaster threat that looms over the city.

"There is no negligence on part of SMC and it is purely the state government which is to be blamed for the situation. The government has neither reimbursed money to SMC nor has it provided help in any other manner," he said.

SMC and the state government are at loggerheads since a long time over the issue. The floods in 1998, probably the worst ever in the city's history, saw the embankment getting breached at many places.

The state government proposed to bear 50 per cent of the expenditure to repair the embankments and asked SMC to begin the work. SMC then spent almost Rs 6 crore for the embankments.

The state government, however, failed to keep its word and did not reimburse any money to SMC. It was only after SMC raised the issue with the water resources ministry that the state government reimbursed Rs 10 lakh (out of approximately Rs 3 crore). The SMC officials are not sure when the state government will provide it the remaining funds.

SMC needs to spend nearly Rs 60-70 crore more to finish the job.