The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has approved an annual allocation of INR 50 crore for Pune City under the Urban Flood Risk Management project for the next five years. The project is aimed at helping urban areas that have faced floods disrupting civic life and critical services. Pune is one of seven cities selected under the initiative, including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
The project seeks to develop short and long-term measures under the programme to tackle urban floods, and Pune will receive INR 50 crore every year until 2026. According to NDMA, the increasing frequency of cyclonic activities due to climate change and variability results in excessive rainfall in short periods, leading to inundation of cities.
As one of the chosen cities, Pune needs to chalk out short- and long-term measures under the programme. The urban flood risk management project by the Centre aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable cities to flooding by developing disaster-resilient infrastructure that can cope with intensifying rainfall, a higher sea level rise and a storm surge caused by cyclones, and protect lives, economy and the environment.
