Surat Launches Mega Demolition Drive to Clear Creek Encroachments

Surat, Gujarat – After years of neglect, the Surat administration has finally woken up from its deep slumber and started a mega demolition drive to raze down the illegal structures along the creeks, obstructing the flow of water and causing flash floods during every monsoon season. 

After a high-level meeting, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the District collector’s office have jointly undertaken a mega demolition campaign. On Friday, on the one hand, a meeting of Surat’s  in-charge Minister Kanubhai Desai was held, while on the other hand, the work of removing the encroachments around Koyali creek in Varachha commenced in a full swing. 

According to the information received, around 6 buildings around Koyali Creek near Butbhawani in Varachha have been demolished on Friday.  It has been found that a total of 26 buildings have been constructed in the water path of the creek bed, and the process of demolishing all these building has begun. 

Officials from the Torrent Power and Gujarat Gas also joined the police. More than 100 municipal employees and a convoy of more than 150 police personnel have joined this demolition operation. A large number of police personnel have been deployed to ensure that no untoward incident occurs and there is no hindrance in the operation. The SMC teams has started demolishing the properties obstructing the flow of the creek. Departments including the police, Torrent Power and Gujarat Gas are also cooperating in this operation.

According to the officials, this demolition operation is likely to continue for another three to four days. Initially, there was some anger among the local people, but after persuasion by the municipal officials, they agreed to cooperate. The owners of other properties are still being explained. The administration has made it clear that all the properties obstructing the flow of the creek will be compulsorily demolished, so that Surat can be freed from the problem of creek flooding in the future.

In the Butbhavani area of Varachha, Jawahar Nagar is on one side of the creek and Ishwar Nagar is on the other. The current creek was a double creek. After that, different properties were constructed on both the banks of the Koyali creek in the last few years.  Currently, the width of this creek has become half of what it was before. As many as 26 properties of Jawah Nagar Society are located inside the creek, due to which the flow of the creek is being obstructed. Along with this, there are textile and other activities going on in the houses on the creek in Jawahar Nagar. It is here that the textile waste is directly dumped into the creek as a huge amount of fabric leftovers were removed from the creek during the clean-up exercise. 

The properties that have been demolished in Jawahar Nagar were given notices earlier. Notices have been given to the properties that are yet to be demolished. Of the 6 properties that are being demolished, most of them have small and big textile job work units. Along with this, there were workers living in some houses.

Surat’s in-charge minister (State Finance and Energy Minister) Kanubhai Desai was on a visit to Surat today and held a series of high-level meetings to resolve this problem. Kanubhai Desai held a total of three important meetings one after the other after reaching Surat. In these meetings, detailed discussions were held with officials, MPs and MLAs to permanently resolve the problem of creek floods. 

Officials from different departments including Surat Municipal Corporation, Surat and Rural Police, Irrigation Department, Metro and Railways were present in high-level meeting. During these meetings, a detailed presentation related to creek floods  was also presented. Kanubhai Desai gave important decisions and instructions after watching this presentation carefully. 

The diamond city of Surat is located on the sea coast. During the monsoon, there are different ways for the rainwater from the city to enter the sea. In which, given the geographical position of Surat city, there are two important ways, one is the Tapi river and the other is the creek. In the middle of Surat city, there is a canal-like water flow, which is known as the creek. The water coming from areas like Kamrej, Palsana, Bardoli, Mandvi, Kadodara in Surat district is not flowing into the Tapi river, but into the creeks, which creates a problem of flooding in the city every year. Due to the encroachments on both banks of the creek, the flow of water is obstructed, and this year, the area from Sarthana to Charoli was submerged in water for 4 days, due to which the obstructive pressure is now being removed.

The Tapi river passes through Surat city. Along with this river, there are 5 creeks in the city, including Bhedawad, Simada, Mithi, Bhathena creek and Kankara creek.