25 wards of south Kolkata to go dry on Wednesday

KOLKATA: Around 10 lakh residents of 25 wards in south Kolkata won’t get filtered water for over 20 hours on June 12. Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities have decided to shut down the water treatment plant in Garden Reach partially on that day to facilitate the construction of Majerhat bridge.

The supply of potable water from the plant will resume the next day, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Saturday.
This is the second time in last two months that the civic authorities will need to shut down the treatment plant in the peak of summer when demand for water soars. In the first week of April, the KMC water supply department had to suspend supply for a day to repair the main supply pipes. This time, a partial shutdown of Garden Reach water treatment plant will affect large parts of south Kolkata, including Chetla, Kalighat, Bhowanipore (parts), Tollygunge, Bansdroni, Ranikuthi, Jadavpur, Jodhpur Park, Dhakuria, among others. But this time, residents of Behala and Garden Reach will be spared of water shortage, said a KMC official.
According to a KMC water supply department official, the civic top brass had no option this time but to agree to shift a wide water transmission line near Taratala to pave the way for construction of Majerhat bridge. “After getting repeated requests from state PWD for shifting of a water pipe near Taratala — the site for construction of Majerhat bridge — over the last few weeks, we have decided to go for a partial shutdown of the water treatment plant. We know this will land residents of large parts of south Kolkata in trouble because of the uncomfortable weather conditions, but we can’t ignore the importance of the construction of Majerhat bridge,” said a KMC official.
“We were in constant talks with the KMC to hasten the pace of the construction. Since we have been chasing a deadline, shifting of a wide water supply pipe was most crucial. If it is not shifted, the work of RCC piling may get stuck and we may miss the deadline,” a PWD official said. According to a state government official, the construction of Majerhat bridge needed another six to eight months to get completed.
However, a section of residents Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt felt that KMC needed to supply water tankers in large numbers to mitigate the crisis that is expected to be triggered by rising mercury and humidity. Ratan Mukherjee, a resident of Ganguly Bagan, complained of acute shortage of water in the locality. “Often, we need to buy water from KMC tankers during peak summer. This summer is no exception. Now if we don’t get water for a whole day, I don’t know what will happen,” Mukherjee rued.