Lifecycle management of urban drainage infrastructure — pre-monsoon desilting, year-round inlet cleaning, hydraulic monitoring, asset condition assessment, smart drainage (IoT sensors + dashboards + adaptive control), citizen reporting integration, capital + O&M budget allocation, ULB capacity building, climate adaptation through O&M evolution.
Operation + Maintenance is where most Indian drainage systems quietly fail. The capex was spent, the pipes were laid, the inlets were installed — and then 5-10 years of neglect later, the system can't carry half its design capacity because every inlet is clogged + half the pipe section is silted up.
Pre-monsoon desilting is the single highest-leverage O&M activity. Done well + completed by 31 May (before monsoon onset), it prevents most localised flooding. ULBs that execute this discipline see 50-70 % fewer flood complaints than peers that skip or delay. Every ULB knows this; many fail to execute due to budget shortfall, contractor capacity, or political distraction.
Inlet cleaning is chronically under-done. Annual minimum 2 cycles (pre-monsoon + mid-monsoon). High-tree-cover areas need monthly cleaning during pre-monsoon + monsoon. Most ULBs do 1 cycle, often half-completed.
Pipe jetting + CCTV inspection every 3-5 years is mandatory for any serious O&M programme. Reveals blockage, deformation, root intrusion, settlement, illegal connections. ₹5-15K per km CCTV; ₹20-50K per km jetting. Most ULBs do this only reactively (after a flood event) instead of proactively.
Asset register: most ULBs have paper-based or fragmented GIS. AMRUT 2.0 mandates digital GIS register — leverage Smart Cities Mission datasets where available. Without an asset register, you can't plan O&M, you can't budget capex, you can't respond effectively to citizen complaints.
O&M budget benchmark: 4-8 % of capex per year. Most ULBs allocate 1-3 % — well below. Result: accelerated deterioration + emergency-only response mode. This is a policy + governance failure, not a technical one.
Smart drainage is the modern technology overlay: IoT sensors (rain, level, flow) + IoT backbone + central dashboard + automated pump control + citizen alerts. Smart Cities Mission + AMRUT 2.0 funded. Hyderabad, Pune, Surat, Bangalore have active deployments. Capex ₹50L-5cr per city.
Citizen reporting apps (Bengaluru BBMP Sahaya, Mumbai MCGM MyBMC, Pune PMC Care) crowdsource problem detection + create accountability. Acknowledge ≤ 24 hours, resolve ≤ 7 days target. Most cities improving but execution uneven.
Climate adaptation through O&M: as climate shifts (more intense rainfall + longer dry spells + more leaf debris), O&M frequency must scale up. Cities seeing 20-30 % more annual rainfall need 30-40 % more cleaning cycles. ULB budgets need to grow + planning needs to anticipate.
Public awareness: 'don't dump in drains', 'segregate plastic', 'don't park on inlets' campaigns reduce inlet clogging by 30-50 % when sustained. Most ULBs run weak campaigns that fade after monsoon. Sustained year-round messaging via municipal social media + school programmes + RWA partnerships is the modern best practice.
Where this chapter sits: O&M is the difference between a drainage system that works for 30 years + one that fails by year 10. Capex is one-time + glamorous; O&M is recurring + invisible — until it isn't. Cities that get O&M right have functioning drainage even with modest capex; cities that get it wrong have chronic flooding even with massive capex. The CPHEEO Storm Water Manual closes with this chapter precisely because O&M is the chapter most often skipped in actual practice — and the most important to functional outcome.