The city received a sharp spell of rain on Tuesday but the roads in Sector V, unlike Monday, remained free of waterlogging.
On Monday, several roads in the tech township was under ankle to knee-deep water after it rained in the morning.
The credit goes to Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) that installed additional portable pump sets in several places of Sector V to drain out rainwater. The work started on Monday evening and was wrapped up by Tuesday morning.
According to a senior NDITA official, problem areas were identified where the water was not getting drained out, especially near the ongoing construction sites of the Metro viaduct. Pump sets were requisitioned and placed in these areas so that the water could be pumped out into the Eastern Drainage Channel and into the channels of the Kestopur canal.
“We have placed more than a dozen pumps at strategic locations to drain out the water faster. These are in addition to the four water pumping stations that are already functional in Sector V,” said the official.
Another official of NDITA’s solid waste management department said that on Monday evening and night at least six teams were despatched to clean up gully pits and drainage channels.
According to the official, despite being cleared at regular intervals, the drains get choked with plastic wastes mostly from food stalls that occupy almost every other pavement of the tech township.
“Our teams found a lot of plastic items ranging from bags to cutlery like spoons and forks and broken trays dumped in the gully pits. The last clean-up dive was undertaken barely a week ago,” the official said.
Commuters were surprised to find places prone to water logging in Sector V, including College More, SDF Crossing and RDB Boulevard, dry on Tuesday.
Hitesh Agarwal, a resident of FE Block in Salt Lake who drives to his Sector V office, said that he did not take his car to work on Tuesday fearing that the streets would be waterlogged like Monday.
“I was worried that my car would suffer damage because of the rainwater. I was surprised to see that nearly all the roads were dry and not waterlogged like Monday,” said Agarwal.
“We studied the problem areas on Monday and placed an adequate number of pump sets. Clean-up drives of the drainage network and gully pits are on and will continue. We are also in talks with the agencies engaged by the railways to construct the Metro viaduct to ensure that the water is drained out fast,” said NDITA chairman Debashis Sen.
According to Sen, both NDITA and New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) have readied multiple teams equipped with chain saws, truck-mounted hydraulic ladders and earthmovers to ensure that road don’t get blocked in case trees topple over or branches fall on the roads.
The NKDA has kept more than 24 portable pump sets ready to be deployed in any of the action areas of New Town.