Decision to take steps to resolve the problem of waterlogging in and around airport
Telegraph | 21 November 2024
Canals will be desilted, drainage pipes cleaned and high-power drainage pumping stations installed to resolve the problem of waterlogging in and around the airport, a meeting decided on Tuesday.
For many years now parts of the airport have been flooded after every spell of heavy rain. On several occasions, passengers had to wade through water to reach the terminal building after getting off the buses ferrying them from aircraft parked in remote bays.
Some hangars, too, get inundated after heavy showers.
The state government has decided to involve several agencies, including the PWD, Hidco, civic bodies, Metro Railway and RVNL (the central government organisation that is building Metro lines connecting the airport) to implement the mitigating measures.
The agencies were represented in the meeting, which was chaired by Sharad Kumar Dwivedi, the district magistrate of North 24-Parganas.
The measures:
“Waterlogging on the airport premises is a long-standing problem. We are happy the state government has taken the initiative to resolve the issue. We hope the waterlogging problem will be solved by the next monsoon,” said airport director Pravat Ranjan Beuria.
In a meeting a few weeks back, state home secretary Nandini Chakravarti had asked the North 24-Parganas district administration to take steps to address the problem of waterlogging.
Dwivedi said multiple areas prone to waterlogging around the airport were identified on Tuesday and suggestions were sought from the stakeholders who attended the meeting.
“We have identified multiple problem areas along VIP Road. We are looking at ways to ensure that the areas around the airport and its approach roads, including VIP Road and Jessore Road, don’t get flooded during showers,” he said.
Debraj Chakraborty, the mayoral council member in charge of sewerage and drainage at the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said they have suggested an increase in the capacity of the drainage pumping station opposite City Centre II, setting up of multiple booster pumping stations along VIP Road and replacing drainage pipes with bigger ones.
“The capacity of the drainage pumping station opposite City Centre II can be increased in a short time,” said Chakraborty.