Lokmat News Network
Aurangabad, July 7:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has geared up to remove encroachments existing in the Kham River to restore the actual width of the bed. Besides, the civic body will also demarcate a flood control line of 10 km in the river to ensure the flow of water is smooth during the monsoon season and prevent further encroachments in future.
Meanwhile, the AMC will be erecting barbered wire fencing through geo-tagging to discourage encroachments. If anybody dares to make encroachment on the bed of the river then the administration will file an offence against him.
Aurangabad is a member of the River Cities Alliance (RCA). The Namami Gange and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) have prepared a list allying 30 cities in the country.
It may be noted that the stretch of the Kham River which passes through the city is 10 km. There is no uniformity in the width of the river bed. It is wide at some places and narrow at some places due to a large number of encroachments. Meanwhile, the administration claims that we could not deny the fact that the life of residents could be pushed into danger if the rainwater storms in their houses turn their lives into havoc. Hence the administration decided to draw a flood control line. The demarcation will be done through Blue ink. Hence the encroachments between the actual bed of the river and the line will be removed immediately.
Earlier, sensing the seriousness of the flood-like situation, the district collector Sunil Chavan already issued a letter to the office of the Command Area and Development Authority (CADA) directing to conduct a Blue Line survey and demarcate the level of danger in the Kham River, although the river falls under the jurisdiction of the AMC. The district administration has mentioned that there is a flood-like situation in the river for the past three years. Hence preventive measure is being taken to avoid untoward incident during the monsoon and save losses (human and material), said the sources.