KMC gets new machines to desilt choked sewerage

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is ready to deploy high-powered jetting-cum-suction machines to dredge the city’s silted sewer lines to check waterlogging in the ensuing monsoon.
The civic body’s sewerage and drainage department had sent a requisition to the KMC finance department to release funds for the procurement of two categories of jetting-cum-suction machines.These will replace department’s existing machines that have become 15 years old or more.
According to a KMC source, the civic body’s drainage department had asked for 27 large and 16 medium machines at the earliest, given that work needed to be completed ahead of the rainy season.
A civic official said the KMC was already in possession of half the total number. “We have received some of the machines. We badly needed them as the old machines will be scrapped. We have pressed into service a few machines for desilting the stretches of roads, located in low-lying and waterlogging-prone areas. We hope to receive the remaining machines in time so that we can utilize them this monsoon,” said a KMC sewerage and drainage department. The KMC needs to spend around Rs 21 crore to buy the fleet of jetting-cum-suction machines.
A KMC official said since the civic brass had decided not to use the old jetting-cum-suction machines, as directed by NGT, there was a rush to buy new ones. The devices are widely used in the city to desilt choked sewer lines or else the neighbourhoods would face severe waterlogging during monsoon.
“We have started extensive desilting of underground sewer lines along Chittaranjan Avenue, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Strand Road, Brabourne Road, APC Roy Road, AJC Bose Road, Camac Street, S N Banerjee Road, Alipore Road, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Gariahat Road, NSC Bose Road and Golf Green among other areas. But we need more machines to take up desilting of some of the stretches that are worst hit during the rainy season,” said a KMC official.
Some stretches of Belgachhia and Thanthania needed additional desilting to ensure residents were spared severe waterlogging, said a civic official.