Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) administrator Smita Pandey inspected desilting and drainage-route diversion work on a 2.1-kilometre twin box drain along the EM Bypass on Wednesday, with the civic body stating that the intervention is intended to improve storm-water discharge before the monsoon. The project was completed at an estimated cost of Rs 5.57 crore after nearly a year of work.
The drain lies between Bengal Chemical Metro station and the Ultadanga drainage pumping station in Ward 32 under Borough III. During the inspection, Pandey went inside the drain to review the work and expressed satisfaction with the progress made by the civic drainage department, according to the report.
Officials said the two sections of the twin box drain have heights of five feet and nine feet respectively. The drain begins near the crossing of Bengal Chemical, the EM Bypass and Maniktala Main Road, and runs towards the Kestopur canal. Its desilting and route-diversion work was taken up to remove obstructions that had affected the movement of water through the system.
A civic official said one of the drain’s outfalls had become blocked after the Ultadanga flyover was reconstructed following the collapse of a girder. The mouth of the box drain was subsequently connected in coordination with the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, but the closure of one outfall affected drainage from the area.
The diversion was also required in the context of National Green Tribunal rules, under which only rainwater or storm water should be discharged into the canal, the official said. Under the work, water accumulated in the drain will be taken out and a system will be created to channel it into the canal. The civic authorities expect this to improve drainage during the monsoon.
The intervention is the third such work in Borough III, according to officials. Similar work has previously been carried out on box drains in Rajabazar, Maniktala Main Road and Bagmari Road. These projects reflect the operational challenges involved in maintaining underground drainage routes when road and flyover reconstruction changes the way outfalls connect to larger water channels.
The EM Bypass drain is part of a wider drainage chain linking local storm-water infrastructure with the Kestopur canal. In this case, the reported obstruction was not limited to silt inside the drain; the functioning of the system was also affected by the loss of an outfall after bridge reconstruction. The diversion therefore combines routine desilting with a change in the route through which water is discharged.
The civic body’s stated next step is to route the water extracted from the drain into the canal while maintaining compliance with the storm-water discharge requirement. The effectiveness of the intervention will be tested during the monsoon, when the drainage network faces its highest demand.
