Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is going to install 15 deep borewells fitted with high-power pumps to solve the drinking water crisis in several places, including Sukantanagar, Rajarhat and Mohishgote.
Areas like Sukantanagar and those beyond Chingrighata still don’t have filtered surface water lines. Residents of these areas are forced to go to Beleghata with jerry cans to collect drinking water.
Many cross the EM Bypass through the busy Chingrighata crossing because of which multiple accidents have taken place in the past.
Although a foot bridge equipped with escalators has been installed at the crossing, very few people actually use it, as the people who cross the Bypass to get to Beleghata to collect water, do so on cycles.
The project of installing borewells is expected to benefit more than half a dozen wards of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.
According to a senior official of the civic body’s water supply department, a survey was conducted to find out places hit by drinking water crisis. Unlike Salt Lake and New Town, who get filtered water from the New Town water plant, all these places are still largely dependent on groundwater.
“In most places the borewells have aged and their pumps and entire piping system need to be changed. Repairs would have proved costlier than installing new borewells and pumps,” the official added.
According to the official, the civic body decided to install the borewells as setting up the pipelines from either the New Town plant or the Tallah water plant would take at least a couple of years.
Tulsi Sinha Roy, the mayoral council member-in-charge of water supply at the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said they were well aware that tapping into the groundwater table increases the chances of an area turning unstable. “We have to ensure that there is a steady supply of water as all these areas are heavily populated,” Roy said before adding that this was a stop gap arrangement till the fresh pipelines are laid.
According to Roy, the cost of constructing each borewell has been pegged at Rs 15 lakh.
The detailed project report has already been prepared by the engineers and will be sent to the state government later this month, another civic official said.