In a historic first, the Indian Navy recently carried out a Navigability Assessment of Yamuna in Delhi by taking the Work Boat from Kochi, which was brought into Delhi on the initiative of the LG. The objective of this initiative was to clean Yamuna’s floodplains with the participation of common citizens. The Navy Work Boat is 11m long with a displacement of about 12 tons, a capacity of 35 passengers, and has a draft of 1.7m, cruising at a speed of 14 knots. A detailed hydrographic survey was carried out by the special Naval team from Karwar and Dehradun to identify the less than 1.7m depth of patches on Yamuna. The desilting of the identified patches was carried out using locally available amphibious equipment creating a channel of approximately 30m width by June 20.
The trial run was undertaken in the early hours of June 24, on a three km stretch between Signature Bridge and Boat Club and the Boat has been successfully moored at a special Jetty created for it at ITO Barrage. The initiative is aimed at earmarking proper channels on which boats carrying passengers and goods could successfully run in the near future. The LG’s efforts to clean Yamuna have been supported by several initiatives to bring the residents of Delhi closer to the river.
