Mamata orders Hooghly, Adi Ganga master plan

Kolkata: The Bengal government is taking up a major project to clean River Hooghly along with Adi Ganga and a global tender may be floated to do the same.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Chandrima Bhattacharya to take it up with the former minister of the department Firhad Hakim and prepare a comprehensive plan in this regard.

She has also directed Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi to look into it and to form a committee comprising expert engineers who will carry out the task with due diligence.

She said: "Steps should be taken to put the Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) along River Hooghly in order to minimise pollution of the river from the effluents."

Banerjee stated about the immediate steps that need to be taken to clean the river while addressing a meeting at Nabanna Sabhaghar in which she took stock of the relief work in cyclone-affected districts and also directed to take all necessary precautionary measures to avoid loss of life when another natural calamity due to heavy high tide on June 11 and 26 is expectant within a month of Cyclone Yaas. Banerjee has directed to ensure evacuation of 20,000 people residing at the coastal and riverine areas.

While speaking about the need to clean the river, Banerjee further maintained: "I find River Ganga to be very dirty. Sewage gets dumped into the river every day. Why are we not setting up recycling plants? Dwivedi (Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi) immediately look into it. If needed, float a global tender."

She also spoke about the Adi Ganga stating that the water looks black because of pollution. Adi Ganga is a channel that passes through different parts of the city, including Kalighat and Bhowanipore and once it even used to connect the Bay of Bengal with Hooghly.

Banerjee has also enquired about the utilisation of Rs 10 crore that was sanctioned for the cleaning of the river two to three years ago.

After learning from Hakim that the STPs that were set up along the Hooghly in 1970s and 80s under Ganga Action Plan hardly function due to poor maintenance, Banerjee directed to take steps to prepare a robust plan to make the same functional again.

She also came to know from Hakim that setting up of colonies along canals and rivers led to a crunch of space to set up new STPs. As it is not possible to shift the colonies, she directed to find out the required space in the colonies itself to set up new STPs.

Taking a cue from Hakim's suggestion of taking up biotreatment for cleaning of rivers, Banerjee said: "New ideas have to be adopted. Many a time, it helps in developing better things against less expenditure."

Banerjee also directed Bhattacharya to prepare a master plan for a completely new drainage system in Howrah and Barrackpore. She has also stressed on desiltation of canals.

It needs a mention that as the Centre has not taken up desiltation projects in River Ganga for generations, navigability has been badly affected and the STPs have become non-functional because of heavy pollution. The ambitious project to run luxury ferries from Kolkata to Benaras and Kolkata to Murshidabad could not see the light of day as the engines got damaged because of heavy river pollution.

Banerjee, who repeatedly stated about the use of flora and fauna to check damages of embankments and coastal areas, set up a 24-member committee headed by Chairman of West Bengal Pollution Control Board Kalyan Rudra and experts from different universities, including Calcutta University, Jadavpur University and Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya to come up with a permanent solution to check damages caused by cyclones that now affect the state almost every year.