Kolkata: Drainage revamp to solve VIP Road waterlogging – Times of India

KOLKATA: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is working on a revamp plan of the entire drainage network system of BMC area to prevent localities like VIP Road near Haldiram and Chinar Park as well as a portion of the airport operational area from getting inundated during monsoon.
The authorities along with officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), irrigation department, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) and Public Works Department (PWD), conducted an inspection of the drainage system of areas in BMC wards 6 and 7 — areas off VIP Road adjacent to the airport — on Friday.
BMC and PWD plan to take up a pre-monsoon cleaning drive to clean the drainage lines on VIP Road and adjacent areas.
“There are some notified outlets which flush out the excess storm water from airport. During Friday’s inspection it was found that apart from the notified outlets, there are some other smaller outlets coming from airport side. During heavy rain, excess storm water is getting drained out through these outlets and crossing a very narrow drainage channel before accumulating on the sides of VIP Road, resulting in flooding,” BMC MMIC (drainage) Debraj Chakraborty said.
The civic official said a discussion had been held with AAI officials on the matter. “We will write to them and suggest they block the small outlets,” Chakraborty said, adding that the drainage lines around VIP Road area will be thoroughly cleaned up using suction machine.
Alleying fears of the airport getting inundated, civic officials said all the outlets will not be fully blocked at one go. “There will be shutter gates at the outlets so that the excess storm water can be be drained out during heavy rains. But in the long run, this would not be required as a masterplan has been prepared to revamp the entire drainage network system of BMC area with new drainage pumping stations, cleaned lines and new lines at place along with increased height of the canal banks,” said a civic official.
The irrigation department is working on setting up a new 200 cusec/per hour drainage pumping station at Kestopur off cantonment canal which will help flush out excess storm water from areas near airport.
Each year during heavy rains, large parts of Kalabagan, Narayanpur, Jatragachi and Baguiati get waterlogged due to the clogged drains and the canals’ incapacity to flush out excess water.
Officials said waterlogging at Haldiram junction, Chinar Park and parts of Rajarhat under BMC can be tackled to some extent once the 1,200 cubic metres (12 lakh litre) water discharge capacity pumping station is set up.