Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, along with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, on Sunday visited the Asola Bhatti Mines forest area and directed the officials to prepare a Master Plan for developing the large abundant pits into reservoirs for collecting rain, flood and storm water and recharging ground water.

The Master Plan will be prepared by a committee of officers of the concerned departments in consultation with experts and institutions and they have to submit it in 30 days. As per the statement released by the Raj Niwas, “Saxena, CM and Dy CM were in unison on the desirability of developing the 14 pits, with a holding capacity of more than 800 million gallons of water, into reservoirs that would help recharge the city's ground water. Accordingly, it was decided to put in place, a Master Plan for rejuvenation and redevelopment of Asola- Bhatti Mines area.”

“Following the LG's visit to the location on 31st May 2022, when he had directed officials to explore the possibilities, and a subsequent meeting with the CM where the two had discussed the idea, today's joint visit along with senior officers in charge of concerned departments with chief secretary, witnessed an on location assessment, inputs from different stake holder departments and a slew of specific directions and decisions,” the statement said.

“It was informed that low-lying inhabited areas outside the forest reserve witnesses persistent waterlogging and flooding, about 35 per cent of which came from the gradient of the higher mines area itself. Apart from this, the main drains flowing right outside the forest area were also prone to overflowing during the monsoon,” it said.

“Officials were directed to hold the water flowing down the slopes by constructing a bund on one hand, and devise ways and means to pressure-lift the collected water thus, as also to channelize and pressure lift the water from the drains and low-lying inhabited areas into the Bhatti Mines pits,” it read.