India, June 14 -- With the monsoon inching closer to the national Capital, the Public Works Department (PWD) is set to miss the June 15 deadline for desilting major drains across the city as less than 60% of the work has been completed so far, officials aware of the work said.

The officials attributed the delay to late awarding of tenders and additional work such as personal monitoring and weekly reports assigned by senior officials.

"Work orders were issued late this year, and that affected our schedule. We are trying to catch up and hope that all of the work will be completed by mid-July," a PWD official said.

PWD minister Parvesh Verma had earlier said that small tenders for brief periods had affected work quality in the last few ye...