A long, thin tract of land situated between the EM Bypass and the service road and stretching 500 metres northwards from Hiland Park will be used to build a booster pumping station, sources in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation said.

The pumping station will help supply potable water to pockets that still depend on groundwater and also increase the pressure of flow in places where potable water is already available.

The corporation has already floated a tender for construction of the pumping station.

The 9-metre-wide road between Hiland Park and Ajoynagar bus stops now has stretches with planned gardening, some stretches with overgrowth of weeds and even roadside eateries.

The choice of location was prompted by unavailability of land. The chosen tract, a patch of green amid concrete, is a challenge for the corporation, an urban planner said, as booster stations are rarely built on plots of such shape.

If the exterior of the pumping station can be camouflaged with greenery, it can turn out to be an example of good planning, he said.

An architect said the station could turn out to be an eyesore or set an example of marrying necessity with well-thought-out planning.

“It will be a semi-underground reservoir-cum-booster pumping station of 1.8 million gallon capacity. The pumping station would serve Mukundapur, Ajoynagar, parts of Santoshpur and Nayabad, among other areas,” a corporation official said.

Metro has reported on several occasions about water woes in this zone.

A resident of Nayabad said the neighbourhood gets a mix of groundwater extracted through pumps and potable water from the Dhapa treatment plant.

“The water pressure is so low that all we get from the taps during summer is a trickle. Many houses have dug borewells to extract groundwater,” he said.

A semi-underground reservoir-cum-booster pumping station was inaugurated at Panchasayar last month and the corporation hopes it will bring some respite to residents of the area this summer.

“We have floated a tender to invite bids for construction of the booster station. But it does not seem that the work can be awarded before the civic elections. So, construction is likely to start from June and it will take about 18 months from then,” the official said.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the custodian of the Bypass and the land on either side, handed over the plot to the corporation for construction of the booster pumping station.

The stretch had earlier been reserved for a cycle track, a green verge and a walkway.

“But the cycle track has lost its purpose since we cannot have a continuous track along the Bypass, which was the initial plan. We have asked the corporation to create a track on top of the semi-underground reservoir and also a green verge once the work is over,” a CMDA official said.