Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has lined up a series of inaugurations and programmes to lay foundation stones of water reservoirs and booster pumping stations.
Three booster pumping stations-cum-water reservoirs are scheduled to be inaugurated on Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, a pumping station with a 10lakh litre-capacity reservoir is to be inaugurated at Behala Jaysree Park.
Two booster pumping stations-cum-reservoirs are set to be inaugurated in Garia’s Subhas Palli and Kasba’s Sarada Palli on Friday. The one in Garia has a 3.2million gallon-capacity reservoir and the other has a reservoir with a capacity of 13.6 lakh litres.
CMC officials said the construction of the three booster pumping stations-cum-reservoirs started about two years ago. “All the facilities will be functional soon after the inauguration,” the official said.
The foundation stone of four more booster pumping stations-cum-reservoirs will be laid between Tuesday and Saturday.
The four will come up on Debabrata Biswas Sarani (Lake Terrace), in Pashchim Barisha, on Haripada Dutta Lane in Tollygunge and on Raja SC Mullick Road in
Garia.
The new stations may not, however, solve the water woes of the areas completely. CMC officials said the reservoirs may not function in full capacity till enough water is available. The CMC is augmenting the capacity of the water treatment plant in Dhapa and setting up a plant in New Garia. But it will take at least two years for the facilities to be functional.
An official said the foundation stones are being laid so work can go ahead after the Lok Sabha elections are declared.
A CMC engineer said all the reservoirs and booster pumping stations have been planned to replace underground pumps that currently supply water to housholds in the respective areas.
“We will decommission the pumps once the stations are functional. The main objective is to stop using underground water. The water table level in Calcutta has dropped significantly in the last few decades,” said the engineer.
There are 72 booster pumping stations run by the CMC. Many of them — especially the ones with smaller capacity — are in Kasba, Jadavpur, Behala and Tollygunge.
Multiple pockets in these places suffer from water
shortage.
In the last three to four years, the CMC has built 37 booster pumping stations, including the three stations that will be inaugurated this week.
The reservoirs store water and the booster pumping stations push the water into the supply network with the help of high-powered pumps.
This increases the pressure of water and helps the water reach pockets where the supply was either inadequate or absent.