Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is using drones to survey the city’s outfall canals. This is the first time drones are being used to take pictures of encroachments on the banks of canals and to identify the heavily silted stretches that require dredging.
A KMC sewerage and drainage department team on Friday conducted a survey of Guniagachi, Suti and Intercepting canals along E M Bypass.These canals carry storm water from large parts of south Kolkata and neighbourhoods located off E M Bypass. To prevent waterlogging in south Kolkata areas, such as Jodhpur Park, Lake Gardens, Anwar Shah Road and Golf Green, and areas off E M Bypass, like Mukundapur, Madurdaha, Kalikapur, Anandapur, Kasba, and Garfa, KMC has teamed up with the irrigation department. They will monitor the dredging of two crucial canals —Tollygunge-Panchannagram and Intercepting.
The survey was taken up after civic sewerage and drainage department and state irrigation department officials held a meeting nearly a month ago to discuss how illegal settlements along the canal banks deterred the authorities from dredging the water bodies. As a result, the canals were never cleared of the silt and it, in turn, led to flooding and waterlogging. Mayor Firhad Hakim, who had chaired the meeting, said an instruction was given to the irrigation department chief engineer to clear the encroachments from the canal banks following which the canals could be dredged and the civic drainage wing could take effective steps to flush out storm water following downpours. “We have instructed the state irrigation department to get rid of the encroachments. It will pave the way for dredging of these canals,” the mayor had said.
According to the member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC sewerage and drainage department, Tarak Singh, several outfall canals, such as Manikhali, Begore, Churial, Beliaghata, Intercepting and Suti canals were found heavily silted. “Though we have been constantly updating our drainage network, the results won’t show till the outfall canals are dredged and readied for the flushing out of huge volumes of storm water after a heavy spell of shower,” said Singh.
According to civic officials,residents of Behala and Joka faced inundation every monsoon, as water-bearing capacity of major canals, like Begore, Manikhali and Churial, was reduced by siltation. Besides, heavily silted canals Beliaghata and Intercepting canals are also flooding vast stretches of south Kolkata and neighbourhoods located off E M Bypass. “The silted intercepting canals is largely responsible for severe waterlogging of south Kolkata neighbourhoods and areas like Kasba, Garfa, Kalikapur among others,” said a KMC official. Residents of Beliaghata and its adjacent neighbourhoods suffer from inundation every monsoon because of the silted canal.