Drainage work starts, hope for snarl relief near airport – Times of India

Kolkata: Work on a crucial drainage pumping station is finally underway in New Town that could solve the vexed waterlogging problem that has plagued the VIP Road-Chinar Park belt ever since the right turn exit flyover from New Town was constructed a decade-and-a-half ago.
“The pumping station will be ready by next monsoon when people living in the area as well as those passing through it should breathe a lot easier,” said an official.
The problem has only got accentuated over the years with waterlogging around 1sqkm stretch turning into a nightmare for not only commuters between Kolkata and its north-eastern suburbs of Birati, Barasat and Basirhat but also for flyers and airline crew travelling to the airport and back.
Officials in the state public health engineering (PHE) department said civil work was already underway for the drainage pumping station opposite City Centre II mall close to Chinar Park junction in Rajarhat. Since Chinar Park is a bordering area between Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Hidco project area in New Town, the two authorities had decided to set up the pumping station with the help of the PHE department. Water pumped out by the drainage station will be flushed out to the Bagjola canal through a bypass canal.
It isn’t clear if the pumping station will have two pumps of 75 HP each or three pumps of 30 HP each. But they are expected to bring some relief to the area that gets completely inundated after a sharp spell of rain. The knee to waist high water accumulation makes it difficult for motorists to negotiate the area.
“This pumping station will partly solve the waterlogging problem at Haldiram junction and mainly from Chinar Park to City Centre II mall. BMC was preparing a detailed project report for having a pumping station catering to a large area covering Rajarhat,” said an official.
Waterlogging in the Haldiram junction, especially its service road, can now be flushed out only after the water from Chinar Park intersection recedes. The situation worsens when water in Bagjola canal overflows as the excess rain water flows back instead of getting flushed out, a BMC official said. The fill-up of two shallow nullahs on either side of VIP Road known as ‘nayanjuli’ hasn’t helped matters.
Officials said that Bagjola canal was losing its capacity to flush out excess rainwater and dredging and de-silting schemes would be taken up to sort out the problem.
Sources said that the drainage pumping station project was conceived nearly eight years ago at the time of the inauguration of Kolkata airport terminal 2. But the project had failed to take off till only recently.
While the civil work is expected to be completed by March, the pumps will be installed thereafter and trials carried out.