Asian Development Bank team meets Kolkata Mayor

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will seek assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB) for providing drinking water in its jurisdiction anywhere between 12 to 24 hours and make the city free of garbage in the next couple of years.

A meeting was held between Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and the director of ADB at the KMC headquarters on SN Banerjee Road Monday afternoon. Senior officials of KMC’s water supply department and Kolkata Environment Improvement Project (KEIP) were also present at the meeting.

The ADB officials expressed satisfaction over the work carried by KMC. The Corporation was first granted a loan by ADB loan in the year 2000, when Subrata Mukherjee took over as Mayor and Chatterjee was a member, Mayor-in-Council (Water Supply).

At the time, KMC’s thrust area was providing more drinking water to the people and cleaning of underground sewer line to solve the waterlogging problem in the city. Both the schemes had been carried out successfully.

Chatterjee said the KMC had proposed to supply round the clock drinking water in wards numbers 1 to 6 in North Kolkata. Water meters will also be installed to check the usage. Round the clock drinking water will also be supplied in ward numbers 142, 143 and 144 – the three new wards that were added to KMC’s jurisdiction in 2010.

The detailed project report for the scheme is ready and tender will be floated once clearance from ADB is issued. The estimated cost of the scheme to provide round the clock drinking water supply will be around Rs 280 crore. KMC has taken also special measures to check wastage of water.

The civic authorities also propose to set up another reservoir with a capacity of 20 million gallon per day. The Corporation has also proposed supply of round the clock drinking water in Jadavpur and Garia.

As of now, KMC supplies water at high pressure from 5.30 am to 9 am, at medium pressure in the afternoon for one hour, and again from 5.30 pm to 9 pm.

The Corporation also has plans to desilt a water body, covering an area of 265 acre, in Palta. The depth of the water body was earlier 18-20 ft, but silt deposition has reduced it to around 3-4 ft.

For this purpose, methods used in Netherlands and Canada will be adopted by the Corporation. KMC will also request ADB to fund the state-of-the-art desilting operation. Chatterjee said that in the past four decades no desilting operation has been carried out.

KMC also has plans to rid the city of garbage in the next couple of years. Chatterjee said that open vats had been replaced by compactors and in the next few years the city will have modern solid waste management system.

KMC will also request ADB to provide funds for maintenance of some arterial roads.