Booster pumping station inaugurated at Parnasree

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee and Mayor Sovan Chatterjee who is also the minister for Fire, Environment and Housing, chose the venue of inauguration of a booster pumping station at Parnasree in Behala and highlighted the all-round development of this part of the city, aiming it to turn the place into a model area in Kolkata.

While Partha Chatterjee is an elected MLA of Behala Paschim, Sovan Chatterjee is an MLA from Behala Purba.

The Education minister who was the chief guest at the event said: "Behala, like some other areas in Kolkata, is referred to as an added area because of its location in the fringes. However, the all-round development in the area in the last few years have been phenomenal and it will not be wrong to say that Behala is now "proper Kolkata".

He reiterated that schools and colleges in Behala have been witnessing constant upgradation of infrastructure and will continue to do so in the days to come. "Two primary schools and Vivekananda College will be upgraded soon," he added.

Talking about the boost in healthcare facilities, Chatterjee maintained that Vidyasagar Hospital has seen a major infrastructural facelift and maintained that the Sarsuna health centre will be upgraded to a hospital.

Taking a cue from Chatterjee, the Mayor who presided over the programme said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation will utilise the funds allocated by the state Municipal Affairs department as part of the Clean City Green City project in the rejuvenation of ponds. "We are renovating a pond here and a part of it will be converted into a swimming pool of international standards," he added.

It may be mentioned that the booster pumping station at Parnasree with a reservoir capacity of 12 lakh gallon will have the Garden Reach Water Works as its source. The total project cost of the station has been Rs 18 crore and another Rs 4 crore has been utilised for setting up the pipelines for water supply.

State Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim who inaugurated the pumping station said the capacity of Garden Reach will soon be augmented to 210 million gallons from 185 million. "Garden Reach will then have the capacity to cater to the water demand for the entire city and Tala in North Kolkata can be kept as a reserve," he said.