NDMC Vice-Chairman Kuljeet Chahal studies Surat's rainwater harvesting steps

Chahal met Union Minister C.R. Patil during the visit and informed the Minister about NDMC's ongoing efforts in New Delhi, including the redevelopment of 272 rainwater harvesting pits and the construction of 101 new ones.

He emphasised that these efforts were a part of the commitment to fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of achieving zero water logging in NDMC areas and significantly improving the city's groundwater levels.

The Surat meeting came close to a presentation that the NDMC made last month before the Union Minister, outlining plans for waterlogging prevention and drainage system upgrades in the NDMC area.

"Based on the discussions during that meeting, the Surat study tour was organised to observe and learn from one of the most successful urban water management models in the country," said an official.

Chahal, while briefing about Surat's Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), said that the centre was operationalised in 2016 under the Smart City Mission to strengthen inter-departmental coordination and improve the delivery of civic services.

This state-of-the-art facility integrates data from over 30 municipal services -- including BRTS, traffic management, emergency response, CCTV surveillance, streetlight monitoring, and grievance redressal -- onto a single, unified platform, he said.

Chahal added that the current ICCC of NDMC lacks several integrated services that are successfully implemented in Surat and emphasised the need to upgrade it by adopting the Surat model.

He said the NDMC team, during its visit to Surat, went to the Tertiary Treatment Plant at Bamroli, the Groundwater Recharge System at the Bio-Diversity Park.

"The Bio-Diversity Park, developed on a former waste dumping ground, stood as a shining example of the 'waste to wealth' concept under the Smart Cities Mission," added Chahal.