Indian Express 9.09.2009

Water, water everywhere, KMC projects nowhere

The tall claims made by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) after it took up developmental projects of over Rs 600 crore to help the city get rid of waterlogged streets were washed away this week after incessant rains since last weekend submerged large portion of the metropolis.

Though Rs 120-crore Project Nikashi (phase I) is complete, people are yet to experience the benefits of the project. The project had several components like desilting of the clogged drains, constructing three new pumping stations and installing auto-cleaning machines at several major pumping stations of the city to drain out the rainwater.

Moreover, the Rs 500-crore desiltation project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission did not give any succour to people.

A reality check by The Indian Express has revealed that even places where desiltation work of underground sewer system by using German trenchless technology is almost complete, the roads remained waterlogged. The areas included Free School Street, APC Road and Lenin Sarani.

“We are shocked to see the extent of waterlogging in the city. This is beyond our imagination. We will look into the matter and find out what is exactly going wrong in spite of all our efforts to provide city dwellers with some respite from waterlogging,” said a senior civic engineer of the drainage department.

The stretches of central business district, including BBD Bag, remained under knee-deep water. Interestingly, these areas were never earlier inundated. Large areas of north and central Kolkata and Behala remained waterlogged throughout Tuesday

The situation further worsened after a power failure at one of the pumping stations of the KMC.

In north Kolkata, major roads like, Bidhan Sarani, Muktaram Babu Street, Amherst Street, Tarak Pramanik Road and Madan Mohan Burman Street remained submerged. In central Kolkata major roads like Chittaranjan Avenue, Park Street, Chowringhee, Theatre Road, BBD Bag and Strand Road remained water logged.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, however, remain unperturbed and said that it is normal for a city like Kolkata to be waterlogged since it has rained around 89 mm. “There was a power trip for one and a half hours at the Palmer Bazar pumping station because of which discharge of water from north and central Kolkata got affected,” said Bhattacharya. “There were no major incidents of waterlogging in south Kolkata,” he added.

Overflow from adjoining canals in Behala coupled with high tide led to waterlogging in different areas of Borough 14. Bhattacharya pointed out because of incessant rainfall since September 5, canals in the area were already overflowing. High tides only worsened the situation, he added.

Meanwhile, state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said that he had a discussion with the Mayor on waterlogging in the city. Till 2.30 pm, the Alipore Met office recorded around 75 mm of rainfall. The forecast for the next 24 hours is intermittent rains with heavy spells. The Metrological Department said heavy rainfall is likely to continue for the next one or two days due to the low pressure that has formed over north Bay of Bengal, off West Bengal-Bangladesh coast.

Rains displace 17,400 people
Two persons have died and around 11.5 lakh people have been affected in the four districts, which are facing incessant rains since the last weekend. Already 17,400 people have been rescued and sent to relief camps.

After Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protesting against Damodar Valley Corporation’s arbitrary decision to release water, the corporation today released 2.4 lakh cusecs of water — 10,000 cusecs less than Monday.

State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, meanwhile, held a high-level meeting at the Writers’ Buildings which was attended by, among others, Minister for Disaster Management Mortaza Hussain, Minister for Civil Defence Srikumar Mukherjee and Minister for Irrigation Subhas Nashkar.

The state government also released Rs 8 crore for relief and rehabilitation of those affected, Dasgupta said. ENS

The New Indian Express 09.09.2009

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