Nagpur: Repeated flooding at the Manish Nagar railway underpasses has prompted MahaMetro to move beyond damage control and focus on preventing water from entering the structures. At a high-level meeting on Monday, officials discussed immediate and long-term interventions for the Manish Nagar and Somalwada underpasses.A senior MahaMetro official told TOI that the priority would now be to intercept heavy runoff from Wardha Road before it reaches the railway underbridge rather than merely pumping out accumulated water.“The pumps are functioning efficiently. What needs to be examined is the ingress of water into the RUB from the Wardha Road side,” the official said.A MahaMetro team will inspect the Manish Nagar underpass on Tuesday to identify points through which runoff enters and assess measures to block the inflow.“The immediate plan is to create a barrier or interception system on the Wardha Road side to prevent rainwater from flowing into the underpass during intense spells,” the official said.MahaMetro is also considering a dedicated electricity feeder for the pumping system. Officials said separating it from the domestic power network would ensure local faults or power interruptions do not disrupt dewatering operations during emergencies.The move follows an NMC-led post-flood review, which found that only one of the three pumps at the Manish Nagar underpass was operational during the recent cloudburst-like downpour after water entered the electrical installations, disrupting power supply.MahaMetro maintained that the pumps were mechanically sound and said protecting the electrical installations while reducing the volume of incoming runoff would be central to the corrective plan.Officials acknowledged that a permanent solution would require strengthening the drainage network across the wider Manish Nagar-Wardha Road corridor and coordination among multiple agencies.At the Somalwada underpass, the focus will be on diverting runoff before it reaches the structure. The underpass has two main and two standby pumps, all operational. MahaMetro is examining whether the horsepower of the standby pumps should be increased. It is also considering installing metal-angle barriers or similar structures to divert rainwater before it flows into the underpass.
