Mayor holds meet to ensure waterlogging-free Kolkata this monsoon
Kolkata: In a bid to ensure swift draining of rainwater during the monsoon, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee held a meeting with state Irrigation minister Soumen Mahapatra and other state government agencies, at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters on Friday afternoon.
"We have conducted a meeting with the Irrigation minister, along with other government agencies such as Public Works Department (PWD), Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT), Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) and others, to ensure proper drainage of rainwater during monsoons. The task can be carried out effectively through a coordinated effort," Chatterjee
said.
It has been learnt that Chatterjee has urged the Irrigation minister to clean up the clogged canals in the city with priority. "We have to ensure that during heavy rainfall, the water is able to pass through the gully pits into the underground drainage system, so that we can use our booster pumping station, to pump the water into the river through these canals," he maintained.
The Kolkata Environment Improvement Investment Program (KEIIP), with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has integrated a few pumping stations, while several pipelines have been cleansed during the dry weather.
Pump capacities have also been increased. Chatterjee is hopeful that this will contribute to achieving good results.
State Irrigation minister Soumen Mahapatra said "The state government has already started preparations from the month of February. Our control room has been made functional. We have also taken a decision to monitor the canals with the use of drones. We monitor canals throughout the year and implement cleaning process from time to
time."
The Mayor has directed all the other agencies to complete all digging work before June 15. "Monsoon will soon set in and carrying on work by digging roads for utility services will cause serious damage to them. So, it is feasible not to do such work during the monsoon," Chatterjee added.
