KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will upgrade the lock gates that offload the accumulated water from the streets into river Hooghly.
Tarak Singh, Member, Board of Administrators, along with senior officials of the Drainage department visited all 27 lock gates and took stock of the situation.
These lock gates had been constructed during the British era. The lock gates offload the accumulated water from the streets of old Kolkata (covering wards 1 to 100) into the river Hooghly.
Singh said because of incessant rain on Thursday, all the lock gates had to be closed from 3 am to 7.30 am. As a result, there was waterlogging in some pockets in the city.
Firhad Hakim, chairman, Board of Revenue, said the duration of water logging in the city would be less from 2022 due to the steps taken up by the KMC.
The Irrigation and Waterways department has been asked to carry out dredging operations on Monir Khal.
A pumping station has been installed to clear the accumulated water from the roads situated on the low lying pockets of Kidderpore.
Hakim said this has been a recurring problem in Kidderpore for more than a century. However, the installation of a pumping station would minimise the duration of waterlogging in the low lying pockets.
A tender had been floated to find out an agency that would clear the brick sewer in central Kolkata.
Once it is completed, the duration of waterlogging in central Kolkata will be minimised.
The KMC with the support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) 2000-2005 had upgraded the underground sewer lines in parts of south, central and north Kolkata.
As a result, the duration of waterlogging is minimal in vast areas surrounding Rabindra Sadan and Akashvani Bhavan.
Due to the upgradation, water recedes fast from some pockets in Bhowanipore and areas surrounding Hedua, which had been vulnerable to waterlogging.