A stretch of a canal that had been blocked to build the Majerhat bridge will be restored by the middle of January, government and Calcutta Municipal Corporation engineers said. raising hopes that Kidderpore and Mominpur would face less waterlogging next monsoon.

Known as the boat canal, it drains out rainwater from large parts of Kidderpore and Mominpore into the Hooghly.

The PWD had blocked a 33-metre-long stretch of the 2km-long canal to facilitate the construction of the Majerhat bridge. The affected stretch is just below the bridge.

The block was thought to be one of the reasons for recurrent waterlogging in the Kidderpore and Mominpur areas in the past two monsoons.

“We will start restoring the canal in the first week of January. The restoration is part of the scope of the project of building the Majerhat bridge,” said a senior engineer of the PWD, which built the bridge.

An engineer of the department said blocking the water flow in the canal was necessary to build platforms where engineers stood during the construction of the bridge. Sandbags were placed on two sides to block the water.

A large diameter pipe was installed so water could flow bypassing the blocked section of the canal. But it still created problems for residents of Kidderpore and Mominpore, an engineer of the CMC said.

“The pipe was a poor alternative. It failed to work as efficiently as the canal. The block was one of the reasons the Kidderpore area got frequently waterlogged during the monsoon in the past couple of years. But without blocking the water flow, the bridge could not have been built,” the CMC engineer.

“The PWD has promised that it will complete the restoration by January 15. We are hoping there will not be any serious waterlogging problems in the area this monsoon. We will also finish desilting old sewer lines under Dent Mission Row and another drainage line under Bhukailash Road (by the monsoon). The combined impact of all these could be no or very little waterlogging this monsoon,” said the engineer.

The canal was blocked when the construction of the 646-metre-long bridge began in December 2018, said the PWD engineer. The bridge replaced the one that had collapsed in September 2018.

The sewage from wards 76, 77 and 78 — which cover areas like Kidderpore, Kabirirtha, Bhukailash Road, Fancy Market and Mominpore — flows through the boat canal, said the engineer.

The sewage water from these places collect at a drainage pumping station, from where it is pumped into the canal.

The CMC has also planned to dredge the remaining stretch of the boat canal. “We have plans to desilt the remaining stretch of the canal. The target is to complete the dredging before the next monsoon,” said one CMC engineer.