Nashik civic body tells PWD to stop 255-metre wall in Nandini river's flood line

Nashik: After it emerged that a reinforced-concrete protection wall about 255 metres long and four metres high was being built inside the prohibited flood line of the Nandini (Nasardi) river, the Nashik Municipal Corporation served a notice on the public works department telling it to stop the work. The notice says construction began without the required permissions, detailed plans and technical documents.

The wall is coming up in the Adivasiwadi area of ward 16. Local corporator Rahul Dive had opposed the work from the start and led residents in protests to highlight the dangers. Residents also complained that blasting to break rock sent stones flying, damaging houses and injuring some people.

The corporation says the wall and the earth filled in behind it could affect the river's natural flow. If the flow is obstructed, a backwater effect could worsen flooding in riverside settlements, so a technical study of the wall's impact on floods has been ordered.

Under the conditions of the corporation's no-objection certificate, the town planning department's approval, a detailed plan and drawings should have been submitted before work began, but this was not done, the corporation says. It has asked the department for approved documents and a technical report.

Source: Pudhari