Why do the rains wreck Indian cities?

New Delhi: Having just experienced a flooded Delhi, and having read about a similarly flooded Mumbai last week, Just to Clarify wanted to ask a very simple question: Why do Indian cities collapse when it rains heavily? Why, for example, should traffic lights fail? Why aren’t storm water drains large enough for such volumes of water, and why it so hard for these drains to be augmented? Why does the power go out? Why do roads crumble? And most importantly, why are these defects so difficult to correct, considering that we know the power of the monsoon, and have known it, in fact, for decades?

To answer these questions, Just to Clarify welcomes two guests. Professor Usha Raghupathi, from the National Institute of Urban Affairs, has a domain of expertise that includes urban development management, infrastructure and services, and urban reforms. A Srivatsan is a Chennai-based urban planning expert.