Nagpur: Every year before the monsoon, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) undertakes an extensive river-cleaning and desilting exercise, promising smoother stormwater flow and reduced flooding. Yet, for the fourth consecutive year, large parts of the city were inundated after heavy rain, putting the spotlight on the civic body’s workshop department, which is responsible for executing mechanised river rejuvenation works.RTI documents accessed by TOI reveal that between 2022 and 2026, the workshop department spent 9.82 crore on river rejuvenation, including 8.19 crore on hiring heavy machinery and 1.63 crore on fuel for NMC-owned long-boom excavators. The expenditure comes against the backdrop of steadily rising budget allocations for river cleaning, which increased from 99 lakh in 2022-23 to 8 crore in 2025-26. For 2026-27, the civic body has made a provision of 9 crore, with 4.96 crore earmarked for cleaning the Nag, Pili and Pora rivers.The disclosures assume significance in the wake of the July 28 cloudburst-like rainfall, which once again exposed the city’s vulnerability to flooding. Hundreds of houses were inundated, roads turned into streams, vehicles were submerged, and thousands of schoolchildren had to be rescued as low-lying localities remained under water despite annual pre-monsoon desilting drive.The RTI reply to activist Abhay Kolarkar shows that expenditure on mechanised river cleaning rose sharply over the years. Machine hiring costs alone increased from 2.89 crore in 2024 to 5.30 crore in 2025, with contracts awarded to firms including Markstate Pvt Ltd, Vikas Bhasin, M M Engineering Works and Manwar Construction. Fuel expenditure on NMC-owned machinery totalled 1.63 crore over the five-year period, with annual spending gradually declining as river-cleaning operations evolved.Records further show that during 2026, NMC carried out cleaning of only 3 rivers — Nag, Pili and Pora. Another RTI reply from the solid waste management department states 169 employees were deployed across various zones for river and nullah cleaning activities.Recurring floods have reignited questions over effectiveness of the annual desilting exercise. Civic activists argue if river channels are being restored to their designed capacity every year, the city should not be witnessing same vulnerable stretches getting inundated during every monsoon. They have demanded an independent technical audit of desilting works, including verification of the quantity of silt removed and assessment of whether the expenditure has translated into improved flood-carrying capacity.Officials contend desilting is only one component of flood mitigation. According to the administration, this year’s flooding was caused by exceptionally intense rainfall, encroachments on natural drains, constricted waterways, incomplete stormwater infra, low-lying terrain and ongoing utility works that restricted flow of stormwater.
