KMC promises no waterlogged city this monsoon, ground reality says otherwise

Kolkata, May 13 Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and Municipal Commissioner Alapan Bandopadhyay had promised that Kolkata would remain a clean city during the monsoon this year. And this promise of Kolkata Municipal Corporation was supposed to be fulfilled with the addition of three new pumping stations to drain out excess rainwater from the low-lying areas of the city.

With barely a month before the monsoon rains lash the city, none of the pumping stations is ready for use.

The three pumping stations were supposed to come up at Marcus Square, Gokhale Road and Ultadanga --- the three low lying areas of the city where stagnation of rainwater has been a perennial problem.

Last year, the locals of these areas had to remain indoors for five days because of the stagnant rainwater. The same problem is likely to occur this year also. The Ultadanga area and streets in the Marcus Square is likely to be over flooded once more with stagnant rainwater and choked drainage system as the work of pump house is yet to be completed.

It has been more than a year that the state government identified construction agency, Mackintosh Burn, started work on these three pumping stations.

While the civic body’s coffer is being flooded with hundreds of crores of rupees for the development of the drainage system of the city, none of the officials is bothered to monitor the progress of work of these the pumping stations.

When contacted Member Mayor in Council of the Drainage department, Farzana Choudhury, said: “The work was supposed to be completed by June 15. But Mackintosh Burn has stated that they will take a couple of months to wrap up the work. Perhaps the Marcus square and the Gokhale Road station will not come up before October.”

“We have not been able to complete the work of the pumping station at the Gokhale Road-Sambhunath Pandit Road crossing and Marcus Square because of the underground BSNL and CESC cables,” said N M Dhar, a senior officer of Mackintosh Burn.

The employees of the drainage department, however, blame Mackintosh Burn for the delay of the work. “This state government identified construction company has no infrastructure to set up the pumping stations. After securing the tender, the company outsourced the work to sub-contractors. And there is hardly any progress,” said a senior official of the Drainage department.

Also the seriousness of the situation can be realised form the fact that in a meeting held last week at the Municipal headquarters, a section of the engineers even advised the departmental head, Tushar Kanti Ghosh, to buy some boats for these areas. Perhaps the drainage department is the richest of the all departments in the civic body.

The total amount of money being spent to improve the drainage system of the city is more than Rs 700 crore.