Kolkata: Residents in large parts of Bowbazar and its adjacent neighbourhoods may get rid of severe waterlogging next monsoon as the century-old brick sewer line running under BB Ganguly Street has been refurbished and is ready to carry storm water in large volumes without interruption.This crucial sewer line was heavily silted and had lost the capacity to carry storm water. Besides large parts of Bowbazar, the refurbishment and desilting will also ensure the area around Lalbazar remains free from waterlogging.According to a KMC source, the planning and development department was entrusted to take up upgrade work of the 2.2-km sewer line in Aug last year following the inundation of Bowbazar during monsoon.According to a KMC P&D department official, the work started a year ago and was completed before the deadline. “We conducted a survey of the underground sewer line and found the age-old brick sewer line had been heavily silted and severely damaged in parts. We needed to take up an upgrade of the sewer line to save flooding in Bowbazar neighbourhoods,” said a KMC sewerage and drainage department senior official.According to the civic official, besides using sophisticated machines like jetting and suction for desilting of the underground sewer line, KMC also used small bucket desilting machines that helped them to carry forward the desilting process, keeping the daytime heavy traffic on the narrow, congested road unaffected.Mani Bhowmick, a resident of Bowbazar, welcomed the civic endeavour and hoped the revamped drainage network would offer the residents relief from waterlogging. “We would suffer from the fear of inundation before every monsoon. Normal city life in these parts of Kolkata would suffer invariably due to the sinking of the neighbourhoods,” said Bhowmick.
