A councillor on Friday spoke about the woes in his ward that covers a large part of southeast Kolkata and many of them are true for other parts of the Kolkata municipal area as well.
Sushanta Ghosh, Trinamul councillor of Ward 108 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and chairman of Borough XII, said at the monthly meeting of the councillors that parts of the ward had no streetlights and lacked covered drains. And in several pockets, night soil remained scattered on streets.
Ward 108 is among the largest of the 144 wards in Kolkata. It covers areas such as Anandapur, Chowbhaga, Nonadanga and Bantala. Luxury apartment complexes like Urbana are also part of the ward.
“If you come to Ward 108, you will be surprised that it is part of the KMC. I will request the mayor to visit the place one day,” Ghosh said at the meeting at Town Hall.
“Forget LED lights, there are parts that have no streetlights at all. People here have not even seen vapour lamps. There is no drainage and no roads. Night soil remains on the road and kids walk through that. While we are decorating other wards, this ward still lacks basic facilities,” he said.
While replying to Ghosh, who is also chairman of Borough XII, mayor Firhad Hakim said the KMC had decided to build an underground sewer network for Ward 108 as part of the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP), which is funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Ghosh later told this newspaper that builders erected multiple four or five-storey buildings but there was no drainage link to the properties.
The builders did not construct any night soil chamber but merely dug a well where the night soil flows into. With time, it overflows and floods the streets of Gulshan Colony.
KMC officials said most parts of Ward 108 lacked proper drainage. Most of the drains there are open.
Similar problems are encountered in neighbouring Ward 109, which includes places like Nayabad, Mukundapur and New Garia, and Ward 107, which includes parts of Kasba in south Kolkata.
“In both these wards, the sewage and rainwater flow into the canal with the flow of gravity. There is no underground sewer network on many stretches. The roads are in very poor condition,” said an official of the civic body.
Lack of underground drainage network is also a major problem in parts of Behala in southwest Kolkata, including Sarsuna, and the entire Joka. During the monsoon, the sewage mixes with rainwater and floods the streets, creating unhygienic conditions.
Parts of Garden Reach and pockets of southeast Kolkata lack proper metalled roads.