Soon, KMC to take up construction of Hrishikesh Park drainage pumping stn

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is soon to take up the construction of a drainage pumping station at the Hrishikesh Park at Amherst Street which is expected to solve the water logging issue there and in the adjacent areas, once and for all.

With the completion of the construction of the Nawab Ali Park drainage pumping station, the KMC believes it will be able to finally bring some relief to the residents of the Kidderpore area which gets submerged every monsoon after the bout of heavy showers.

However, drainage department officials feel there is another major challenge that lay ahead of them which is to tackle the waterlogging in North Kolkata’s Amherst Street and adjacent areas.

Places such as Thanthania Kalibari, Amherst Street, Muktaram Babu Street, and Sukea Street have over the years gained the infamous reputation of being water pockets in the northern part of the city.

KMC officials had to scratch their heads to recall a monsoon in the past when there was no waterlogging reported from these areas. So much so that the mayor Firhad Hakim has recently recalled to the media that when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was the KMC mayor, he used to visit Thantahnia Kalibari wearing rain boots to check the water logging situation.

In light of such anecdotes, KMC decided to take what may be termed a historic decision. In its 2023-24 budget, the civic body had first announced its plan to set up a drainage pumping station at Hrishikesh Park which will ensure the people in these water pockets in North Kolkata do not have to wade through knee-deep water anymore. The civic body is learnt to have already prepared a detailed project report for the pumping station. It is expected that in the next two to three years this will be completed.

Once the station is set up, it will have several heavy-duty pumps and will be operating through an advanced technology that will help flush out stormwater in no time using a bigger pipeline network and will discharge it into the Beliaghata outfall canal, it is learnt.