Following 50 mm of rainfall on Tuesday, MM Burman Street, Camac Street, Minto Park, Bowbazar, Topsia and many other parts of the city were submerged in knee-deep water. The situation, however, would have been different had all the pumps in these stations remained functional.

According to sources in the drainage department of KMC, seven out of 13 pumps in Palmer Bazar, five out of 12 pumps in Ballygunge and five out of eight pumps in Dhapa pumping station remained switched off throughout Tuesday. In Topsia, only three pumps were functional.

Be it the 16 lifting pumping stations or the three terminal stations, the number of worn out pumps are increasing. Usually, the capacity of heavy weight pumps is 200 cubic feet of water per second (cfs). However, many pumps that were installed before 1945, have depreciated with time. These have either become defunct or their capacity has reduced to nearly 50 cfs.

A report prepared by the World Bank (Project No: PO 50648 on water supply, sewerage and drainage project), a copy of which is with The Indian Express, stresses on replacement of majority of these pumps.

One such project is an “aged” 175 cfs German Mann pump that was installed in 1938. The condition of two 200 cfs Johnston USA pumps, which were installed at Palmer Bazar in 1972, was described as “bad” in the report. But the KMC has not replaced the pumps yet.

Eight out of the 11 pumps in Ultadanga pumping station —- a lifting pumping station under the Dhapa Lock Gate terminal pumping station —- have depreciated with time. Severe waterlogging at the Kankurgachi underpass and Manicktala area is because of the reduced capacity of these pumps. Although there were talks to replace at least five out of the eight pumps last year, but it never happened.

“The pumps at Dhapa Lock Gate pumping station need replacement. The old station needs to be augmented with some new pumps. But no replacement has taken place in recent time,” said A N Shaw, executive engineer of Dhapa