MillenniumPost
Bengal

HMC leaving no stones unturned to ensure waterlogging-free Howrah this monsoon

Kolkata: Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has chalked out an elaborate plan, mainly for desiltation of major drainage channels to keep the city free from waterlogging during monsoon.
With a couple of months left for the monsoon season to set in, the corporation has started taking all necessary initiatives to ensure that waterlogging in the city becomes a matter of the past.
The civic body has already taken steps in this regard and the work of desilting all major drainage channels in the city has already started.
Top brass of the civic body held a high-level meeting, so that the work can be undertaken in time, ensuring that people do not face any inconvenience during monsoon.
Additional manpower has been deputed to carry out the desiltation work and at the same time, officials are constantly monitoring the work to ensure its timely completion. Senior officials of the civic body have also visited the places that have been plagued by waterlogging in the past years.
Besides taking steps to ensure that the logged water recedes fast from those areas, the officials have also identified the other infrastructural developments that need to be carried out for a permanent solution to the problem of waterlogging.
Realising that besides desilting the drainage channels there is also a need to carry out the same in waterbodies under the jurisdiction of other agencies, senior officials of the department held meetings with the agencies and urged them to carry out the work.
A senior official of the civic body said that water from North Howrah mainly recedes into Ranijhil, which falls under the jurisdiction of the railways. The civic body has written to the railway authorities, requesting them to desilt the lake.
Senior officials of the civic body have also held a meeting with top brass of the railways in this connection.
The civic authorities have also held meetings with Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authorities (KMDA) and the state Irrigation department. They held a discussion with KMDA authorities on necessary steps to be taken, to ensure that pumping stations function in full capacity during monsoon.
At the same time, there was a discussion with Irrigation department officials as well, over desiltation of canals, including one in Nazirganj.
Mayor Rathin Chakraborty said: "We carry out necessary work to check waterlogging every year. But this time, we have prepared a plan of action and initiated the work a bit early. Officials of all ranks are monitoring the work to ensure it gets executed properly in the grassroot level."
Bijin Krishna, commissioner of Howrah Municipal Corporation, said: "It is expected that the situation would be better this time, with necessary steps being taken to avoid waterlogging."

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