Load Tallah chambers in Kolkata stop supply during Cyclone Yaas

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), on Wednesday afternoon, may suspend water supply from Tallah reservoir for a period till the civic engineers are satisfied that the impact of Yaas can no more do any damage to the mild steel structure which supplies potable water to the entire central and north and large parts of south Kolkata.
Suspension of water supply will be part of a civic strategy to save the 111-year-old iconic structure from the cyclone, conceded a KMC water supply department senior official. At present, this heritage water reservoir which is the largest overhead water tank in the world is on the verge of completion of a restoration project adopted by the civic authorities in 2016.
According to the civic official, as advised by experts, the officials will fill all four water chambers of Tallah tank and there will be no supply of water from these chambers till the impact of the cyclonic storm is marginalized. Each chamber with a capacity to store 2.5 million gallons of potable water will stand guard against the storm even if it carries a wind speed of 140km/hour, felt the KMC water supply department official.
The KMC engineers also need to set free the movement of a huge crane which was designed in France and installed in 2017 as part of the restoration project. “We were in search of a crane which would supply restoration materials to the top of the tank which is 120-ft high. After consulting experts from the Jadavpur University, the civic brass selected the 130-ft French crane. Now we need to unfix it before the cyclone arrives so that it rotates according to the wind’s direction. If this step is not taken, in all probability, the crane will crumble, failing to withstand the cyclonic storm, and fall on the tank, doing irreparable damage to the super structure,” a KMC official said.
The tank, which was built during the Raj-era, 111 years ago, has withstood three earthquakes and three major cyclonic storms, including Amphan, but never failed to supply potable water to the city.