With monsoons round the corner, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is gearing up to handle situations of water crisis.
A high-level meeting was held at the civic body headquarters yesterday. According to mayor Firhad Hakim, the officials discussed the preparedness to combat waterlogging in low-lying pockets of the city. As elaborated by Mr Hakim, canals like Churial, Manicktala, Bagjola, CPT canal, Beleghata, Keorapukur and others would be assessed by the civic body in resonance with the state irrigation department.
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“The condition of most of these canals is okay and will be cleaned next year. We have sought updates from the state public works department, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, public health engineering department, Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners and the city port trust,” informed the mayor.
As reiterated by the state urban development and municipal affairs department minister, while the HRBC has been asked to furnish details of conditions of flyovers, the port authorities have sought details of waterlogging pockets in areas under them. The CESC and the state electricity supply board have also been asked to stay prepared to handle situations during the rainy season. Simultaneously, the civic body itself is to monitor the pumping stations ready with penstock gates and lock gates. The waterlogging prone areas would also be monitored. The municipal corporation has instructed the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program (KEIIP) to complete the ongoing works by the 31 of this month.
Other works of road repairs that the KMC had taken over from the KEIIP, would also be completed soon. As informed by the mayor, the municipal corporation would utilise funds from the state government to complete those works. This amount would later be adjusted with shares of the state government and the KEIIP.