Tunnel boring project approved to handle rainwater, drainage issues

LAHORE: Planning Commission’s Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved Water and Sanitation Agency’s (Wasa) tunnel boring project to handle rainwater and drainage issues. The project will be completed with an estimated cost of Rs 14 billion.

Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz said the decision was taken in Wednesday’s meeting of CDWP, which also suggested other provinces to introduce the same technology to handle rainwater and drainage issues.

There are almost 26 points in the provincial capital where rainwater kept accumulated. These points are Bhatti Gate, Sheranwala Gate, Eik-Moria Pull, Lakshmi Chowk, GPO, Nabha Road, Firdous Market, Do-Moria Pull, Kashmir Road, Cooper Road, Lytton Road, Chowk Na Khuda, Lawrence Road, Usman Block Garden Town, Link Road (Model Town), Sultan Ahmed Road Ichra, B-Block Tajpura, General Hospital/Qainchi Stop, Tikka Chowk Johar Town, Empress Road / Haji Camp, Qurtaba Chowk, Shah Jamal, Lahore Railway Station, Baghechi Seithan GT Road, Multan Road near Lesco Grid and Karim Block Market.

As per historical rain data for the past five years, monsoon started in the city from July 1 and continued till end September. The five years data of maximum rainfall in a day in the city showed that from 2014 to 2018, maximum rainfall recorded in the city was on July 03, 2018 when the city received a massive 288 mm rainfall inundating almost every part of the provincial capital for hours.

Earlier, the city recorded 177 mm rainfall on September 4, 2014, 96.6 mm rainfall on September 2, 2016, 77 mm rainfall on June 28, 2017 and 67 mm rainfall on July 07, 2015. Wasa MD said unplanned urbanisation, rapid commercialisation and emergence of private housing societies followed by lack of civic facilities made the provincial metropolis prone to natural disasters and calamities, especially rain. He said for the past several years the phenomenon of climate change has also started to show its aftermaths in the country and the provincial capital is witnessing short but intense rainfall, resulting in urban flooding. He added that urban flooding is caused by accumulation of excessive water in developed areas where the water does not have anywhere to go. He maintained that the capacity of drainage system in provincial metropolis to handle excess rains needs to be increased.

The total coverage area of Wasa is 350 sq km, which contained sewer length of 5187 km and water supply line length of 6212 km. Wasa has 13 major disposal stations while 113 lift stations were also established in the city to manage the 55.70 km primary drains, which disposed off their water in Ravi River, the only disposal site for drainage water in the city. It is pertinent to mention here that all rainwater drains, which were constructed by LDA in its all recently developed residential societies have turned into sewerage drains. This showed the lack of planning and vision of the past governments as well as the bureaucracy as no new sewerage drains were planned in past neither the capacity of existing drainage system was increased.

After calculating the future needs, Wasa has envisaged a plan to lay down several huge tunnels starting from Larex Colony to Gulshan-e-Ravi and then from Gulshan-e-Ravi to Cant Drain.

The first of its kind project will cost Rs 14 billion and will be completed using micro-tunnel boring technology, said Wasa MD, adding the new line will replace many of the pre-partition sewerage lines of the provincial metropolis. He said laying of this trunk sewerage line will not cause any inconvenience for the general public as there will be targeted excavations without open digging.

Laying down a sewerage system in Lahore is always considered a big problem because of open digging and shifting of other services but after introduction of micro-tunneling technology by WASA the city will be free of any such issues. A manhole after every 300 meters will be made on the system.

He said that the agency is the first to use micro-tunneling digging technique, which is used in water supply, drainage and sanitation sectors worldwide. He said micro-tunnel boring machines are very similar to tunnel boring machines (TBM) but on a smaller scale.

The biggest advantage of these machines in the upcoming project is that no shifting of services will be required as most of the utility services such as waterlines, Internet cables, telephone lines and etc. existed around two to three metres in the ground whereas the new sewer line will be laid down about 28 to 30 feet deep.

One side of the new line will cover most of the central Lahore, including Garhi Shahu, Shimla Hill, Egerton Road, Lakshmi Chowk, Nabah Road, Jain Mandir, Chauburji, Samanabad and Gulshan-e-Ravi. The other side of the drain will cover Shadman, Gulberg, Samanabad, Bagh Gull Begum, Mozang and etc. He said the project will start soon because the government has approved the project.