Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation project to reach filtered water to added areas
Telegraph | 19 July 2025
An extensive part of the added areas in the vicinity of Sector V will get filtered potable water once a project undertaken by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is completed.
The project had hit a hurdle with the national wetland authority. One of the sites chosen to build a key facility — Unish Bigha Maath, a ground in Ward 36 — was selected to build an underground reservoir. The proposal was cleared by the East Kolkata Wetland Management Authority, the state wetland body, but the National Wetland Committee (NWC), the central body in India responsible for advising the government on wetland conservation and management, sought clarifications.
The East Kolkata Wetlands act as the “kidneys” of Calcutta, a natural sewage treatment system that filters the city’s untreated wastewater. Urban expansion and real estate development, as well as illegal construction, threaten the precious ecosystem.
“A seven-member team had come from Delhi for inspection. It seems they are unwilling to allow any construction in the wetland area though the spot chosen by us is a field. Though we sent our response with supporting documents, we did not hear from them. Then a meeting was held with the urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and Sujit Bose, the local MLA and minister. Our minister instructed us not to wait and to look for substitute land as otherwise the project deadline would lapse,” said a civic official. Land has since been identified and the project is underway.
“This is Sujit Bose’s dream project, for which we have secured funding from Amrut (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, an urban renewal project aimed to improve the quality of life in cities across India),” said Tulsi Sinha Roy, the mayoral council member in charge of water supply. “Four overhead reservoirs and two clear-water underground reservoirs are being built for the project. Two are for Ward 36 (Naobhanga, Santinagar, Khasmahal, Trinath Palli etc), one is for Ward 35 (Sukantanagar) and another for Ward 28 (Nayapatti, Mahisbathan and Polenite),” she added. The project cost is Rs 57.3 crore.
These areas are still dependant on underground water. “The residents used to get served by deep tubewell. Now we are building the supply network. The next step would be house-to-house supply,” said a civic official.
The surface water will come from the water treatment plant in New Town that was built by the public health engineering department in 2015. “The plant currently gives us seven millions gallons per day (MGD), which adds to the 10 MGD we get from Tallah waterworks. Once we create more storage space, we will get three MGD more,” the official said.
The supply from both New Town, which comes via a pipeline laid along the Kestopur Canal, and Tallah reaches the central reservoir at Karunamoyee, from where it is distributed across Salt Lake.
The water from the underground reservoir in AL Park will be drawn directly from the New Town pipeline and will then be pumped to the elevated service reservoir at Nayapatty, which is being built to serve Sukantanagar. The overhead tank can be spotted while passing by the main road ahead of Nicco Park. AL Park is also seeing construction work with underground casting currently being done for the reservoir, which is located a stone’s throw away from Tank 8. “We plan to link it to Tank 8 as well so a bit of the water goes there as well,” the official said.
The supply for Wards 35 and 36 would first reach the underground reservoir built a couple of years ago next to Tank 13 in HA Block, from where it would go to Tank 17 near Nalban, next to which an underground reservoir will be built. “This is an alternative space we have chosen in place of the Unish Bigha ground. The other substitute space is RA 185, a playground in Naobhanga, which is in the refugee rehabilitation area. Since Ward 36 is an extensive area, we will need two elevated service reservoirs. The other one will be built in Khasmahal.”
The drawing and design for the underground reservoir at Nalban have been sent to experts at Jadavpur University to be vetted, after which construction would start.
“We will try to finish by end-2025 or early 2026,” said Sinha Roy.