The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is set to connect all cement roads in the city to a rainwater harvesting network, with 100 locations identified for recharge pits as part of the ongoing Phase 4 cement road project worth ₹260 crore.
To prevent rainwater from being lost to runoff — a key cause of declining groundwater levels — NMC has dug 20-metre-deep pits alongside roads to channel surface water underground. Each pit is connected to a drainage chamber via pipes; water collected from road surfaces flows into these chambers and percolates into the earth, replenishing the water table. Separate chambers have also been prepared inside basements of buildings along the roads to help residents tackle water shortage.
Of the 33 km of cement roads planned under Phase 4, 6.9 km is already complete. The first three phases totalling 33 km were built without rain water harvesting integration. With Phase 4 work on all four packages now complete, NMC officials said rain water harvesting connections will be extended to all cement roads going forward.
The 33 km Phase 4 network spans 14 divisions and covers roads at Jog’s Park, Suyog Nagar, Vanjari Lane, Pratapnagar, Doctors Colony, and Dahi Bazaar, among other stretches. Pit chambers have been built alongside drainage channels running adjacent to the roads, using waste material including garbage — rather than fresh excavation — to fill the structures.
“This is the state’s first experiment of this kind. If successful, all roads in the city will be equipped with rain water harvesting,” said Manoj Talwar, Chief Engineer, NMC.
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