KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) along with members of the Mohammad Ali Park Durga Puja committee will undertake a joint inspection on Tuesday to finalise the place for hosting the Durga Puja.
A team from the Puja committee attended a meeting that was chaired by Director General (Water Supply) Mainak Mukherjee at the KMC headquarters on Monday. Mukherjee apprised the members of the risk involved in hosting the puja on the underground reservoir and the latter were convinced. The portion of the pandal that has already been set up is also being pulled down by the Puja committee.
The pandal can be constructed involving the staircase, the footpath and a portion of the ground where there is no reservoir underneath. A team led by Deputy Chief Engineer of the Water Supply department of KMC along with members from the puja committee will carry out a joint inspection on Tuesday to fix up the venue. Local councilor Rehana Khatoon will also be present during the exercise.The civic body on Saturday had issued a notice for stopping the construction of pandal of the Mohammad Ali Park Durga Puja as was being set up on the park that rests over an underground reservoir which is in bad condition. The Puja committee had not taken the permission from the civic body before taking up the construction work. Mohammad Ali Park Puja is a major crowd puller and gathering of people at the place during Durga Puja may result in a major disaster. In the year 2019 and 2020, the Puja was held inside the fire station situated adjacent to the Park. Last year, the Puja was held occupying a staircase and a small part of the ground.
The underground reservoir at Mohammad Ali Park had partially collapsed on March 31, 2019 morning and water gushed out, leaving Chittaranjan Avenue flooded for several hours. Immediate mending was done temporarily to avoid entry of foreign material and contamination in the reservoir water.
Experts from the Construction Engineering department of Jadavpur University who were roped in for identifying the reason behind the collapse had submitted a report stating clearly that the underground reservoir with an arch-shaped roof that was built during the British rule to store water was beyond repair.
The major recommendations of the JU experts stated that further increment of load in any form (live or dead) is to be restricted as the age old existing buried structure is already under with significant overburdened load (soil).