“Open drains are being connected to underground sewerage system. We can’t prevent waterlogging but we are assuring that water does not stagnate. It will flow down the drain quickly,” said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
The first phase of underground sewerage system will be completed by 2010. “We have begun work in the affected areas, including Behala, Garden Reach and Jadavpur. About 50 per cent of the work has been completed in these areas,” said the mayor.
Like previous year, residents of Behala are experiencing the same sinking feeling. Though the monsoon is yet to hit the city officially, but the recent rainfall worsened the situation as it was last year. The drainage system of Chittaranjan Avenue, Bidhan Sarani, Thanthania, College Street, Keshab Sen Street and Amherst Street continues to be poor as it used to be earlier.
The Thanthania drainage pumping station is of little help. Operating at a poor capacity, the pumping station caters to a small area only.Rains have left large areas of Sakher Bajar, Sealpara, Jadur colony waterlogged. The open drains in Behala are choked as drainage pipelines are being laid here under the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project. Worse, no information is available about the completion of this project.