Repair work of Tala Tank over, Hakim visits site

KOLKATA: The Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Firhad Hakim, on Thursday, visited the Tala Tank site as the renovation work of the fourth compartment of this British-era overhead water tank was completed.

With the completion of work of the fourth compartment, KMC finally concluded its Rs 80 crore project that began four years ago. KMC officials said that the work would have been finished before had the COVID-19 pandemic not delayed the project.

Firhad Hakim said that the Tala tank came up about 100 years ago. “After this present renovation, it will next require repair works after 100 years,” he said. The tank was inaugurated in 1911. The repair works were needed because the structure is old and had developed several holes that led to the loss of water. It was also in a precarious position.

The tank was restored with funds from both the state and the centre. The state is said to have borne the majority share while the Centre disbursed funds from Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. In a bid to ensure that the repair works do not affect the water supply, KMC had taken up repairs in the four compartments in phases. The Bridge and Roof Company was the executing agency of the project which involved repair work of this 9MG capacity century-old overhead balancing steel reservoir.

The tank had been set up by the British in the year 1909, and has been supplying water to the city since then. In 2009, some minor repair work was undertaken, but it was the first time when a complete overhaul of the tank had been undertaken. The Tala Tank is located on seven bigha land and has a height of 110 feet. In 2015, when the engineers had conducted a thorough check of the Tala Tank, they stumbled upon 20 small holes and then a decision for thorough repair of the same was taken.