A south Calcutta resident told mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday that rats have invaded the surroundings of his house, especially because food stalls in the area throw their waste on a road.
The 75-year-old man from Dhakuria’s Maharaj Tagore Road called Hakim during the weekly phone-in programme Talk to Mayor. He said the rats had blocked the drains and pleaded with the mayor to ensure that the food stalls stop throwing waste on the road.
Hakim, who said he faced a similar problem at his Chetla home, said rats are more in numbers in places where there are food stalls.
He promised that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) would serve notices to the owners of food stalls asking them to not throw food waste on roads.
“Rats are more in numbers where there are food stalls. We will try to keep the roads clean,” the mayor said.
This newspaper has reported how the rat population has spiralled in the city and how the rodents have turned into a threat for the city’s infrastructure.
Architects said the rats pierce through the moist and weakened walls of old houses. It is a serious concern in a city known for dilapidated houses and frequent cave-ins.
Officials who maintain public infrastructure in the city said many pavements had undulating surfaces because rats had burrowed through the soil underneath, causing the paver blocks to lose their “compactness”.
Hakim himself said the rat menace has become so serious that many roads in Calcutta would cave in.
“I face the same problem in my house. There is a sweetshop near my house. Rats swirl around the place in search of food. I have told them not to throw anything on the road,” he said.
Rats have dug up the soil under the slopes of the Dhakuria bridge.
The bridge’s deck or main surface — which lies directly over the railway tracks — is supported by piers and is much more stable. But the gap between the slopes and the ground is filled with sand and soil, a CMC engineer said.
Engineers also said a portion of a pavement near the Exide crossing had caved in because the soil below had been displaced by rats burrowing holes there.
As for the Dhakuria bridge, Hakim said crushed glass pieces had been inserted into the soil to prevent rats from burrowing.
An official of CESC, which provides electricity to the city, said the rodents cause frequent disruptions to power distribution boxes. Each box usually caters to half-a-dozen small neighbourhoods, the official said.
Whenever there is a short circuit in a distribution box, the households that depend on the box go without power till repairs are done, he said.
Rats bite through the road surface to enter the boxes from below. A rat can come in contact with a live wire and cause a short circuit. Or it can gather soil and plastic inside the box. Plastic triggers a flash when it comes in contact with live wire, said an engineer.