KOLKATA: With monsoon less than a week away, civic guardians of both Kolkata and Salt Lake have promised less suffering from waterlogging this year.
According to a Kolkata Municipal Corporation sewerage and drainage department senior official, the civic body had already checked and revamped its drainage infrastructure thoroughly as part of its preparedness to combat Yaas.
“We are relatively in an advantageous position due to the threat that the cyclone had posed.
We checked the functioning of all our drainage pumping stations, conducted necessary repairs of some heavy-duty pumps and took measures necessary to combat waterlogging.
These measures will go a long way to ensure that the city doesn’t get affected due to heavy rain during monsoon,” Tarak Singh, a member in the KMC Board of Administrators (BoA), said.
However, a KMC sewerage and drainage department senior official said water bearing capacity of some drainage outfall canals that carry storm water which gets flushed out by the drainage pumping stations, needs attention.
“The KMC brass has taken up the matter with the state irrigation department which will try to conduct a dredging operation to improve the water bearing capacity of these outfall canals,” the official said.
Singh said the KMC had taken desilting of city’s major underground sewerage lines that will give relief to residents who are staying in city’s traditional waterlogging pockets and low-lying areas.
Similarly, the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is gearing up to save residents of Salt Lake and Rajarhat from inundation.
BMC officials said they were satisfied with the monsoon preparations for large areas of Salt Lake but Rajarhat is still a worry.
“Unlike Salt Lake where the drainage network is systematic, large areas of Rajarhat are still vulnerable so far as waterlogging is concerned,” a BMC official said.
New Town Kolkata Development Authority officials said that this year they were well prepared to face monsoon.
“We have already taken up extensive desilting programme across New Town including places like Chinar Park and VIP road near Haldiram where waterlogging has been an issue in the past.
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl, named Mandira Pakhira, was killed after lightning struck her during a thunderstorm at Jyotsriram village of Jamalpur block in East Burdwan on Sunday afternoon.