India faces increasing urban flooding

New Delhi, March 15  The increasing trend of urban flooding in India poses a great challenge, resulting in cities being inundated from a few hours to several days, the government said on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that there has been a rising trend of urban flood disasters in the country over the past several years.

He said in a statement that cities such as Mumbai (2005), Surat (2006), Guwahati (2010), Srinagar (2014) and Chennai (2015) had witnessed major urban floods.

The minister said the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had underlined the importance of early warning system, flood forecasting and reservoir management as well as drainage issues to tackle the problem.