Monsoon 2021 withdrew three months ago and Monsoon 2022 is just five months away, but the desilting of canals that drain out rainwater from Kolkata is yet to take off.
On Monday, mayor Firhad Hakim said desilting of only one canal had started — Monikhali canal, which drains water primarily from Behala in southwest Kolkata.
As for the other canals, the irrigation department has either floated a tender inviting bids for desilting or is still engaged in official procedures.
Desilting of canals is the responsibility of the state irrigation department.
Hakim was speaking after chairing a meeting attended by senior officials and engineers of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the irrigation department.
Every monsoon, engineers blame a host of factors for waterlogging in the city, the most prominent among them being the heavily reduced capacity of the canals because of years of deposition of silt.
A network of canals drains out water from Kolkata into the Hooghly in the west and the Bidyadhari river in the east.
“Even if we build more drainage pumping stations and increase the capacity of the existing ones, water will recede fast only when the canals are desilted,” Hakim said. “I asked officials of the irrigation department if the formalities before desilting are still not over, how will they desilt the canals before the monsoon?”
Parts of Kasba, Jadavpur and Behala are among the worst-affected places during the monsoon. The water takes two or more days to recede from multiple localities.
The Telegraph has reported several times how Mukundapur, Nayabad and New Garia in east and southeast Kolkata remain waterlogged for multiple days after a spell of heavy rain.
KMC engineers said the Suti and Guniagachhi canals drain out water from the Mukundapur-New Garia belt. The Tollygunge-Panchannagram canal and intercepting canal drain out water from Kasba, Jadavpur and Tollygunge.
“All these canals are heavily silted. The canals that drain out water from north and central Kolkata are silted, too” said an engineer.
An official of the irrigation department who attended Monday’s meeting said they had conducted surveys, prepared detailed project reports and also floated tenders.
“We are trying our best to complete the work before the monsoon,” said the official.
Work has also been delayed because of encroachments along the canals.
Hakim said a cause of concern was where to dump the silt to be scooped out from the canal bed.
“If the land belonging to the irrigation department was free of encroachments, it would have been easier to dump the silt before removing. But most canal banks are encroached,” he said.
The encroachments, he said, was a major reason why several contractors refused to submit bids for desilting.
The mayor also said the KMC would desilt the sewer lines to increase their capacity. That will lead to faster flow of water into the sewers.
The civic body is also planning to create a network that will enable engineers and others to monitor waterlogging from the headquarters in real time.