HIDCO to set up archive to preserve drawings of bridges, water supply lines, cables

Kolkata: Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has decided to set up an archive to keep the drawings of bridges, water supply lines etc. so that in times of need, one can access them immediately.

A special committee has been set up to complete the archive by 2018-19. Later, all the plans will be digitised.

Moreover, in the archive, all building plans, all plans of water supply/cables of underground pipelines and GIS maps of all public utilities as well as photographs of important events will be kept. It may be mentioned that after a portion of the Majerhat bridge caved in early this month, neither Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) nor the state Public Works department could produce the drawing of the bridge. All the drawings of bridges that have been kept in the custody of the Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT) have been destroyed. Senior officials of the state government said the drawings of roads and bridges have been destroyed by rats and white ants and the state government spends crores of rupees annually on pest control and to kill rats. However, the drawings of Howrah Bridge have been preserved in England. It may be mentioned that in the early 1990s when a major crack was detected on the underground main pipeline on Chittaranjan Avenue near Mahajati Sadan, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for two days could not do anything as drawings of the underground pipeline could not be traced.

In New Town, the underground sewer lines and water supply lines have been installed by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department and the drawings of the underground pipelines are lying with them. Once, the archive is set up all the drawings will be kept centrally and will be digitised.