KOLKATTA: Sensing that the mega Garden Reach water treatment plant project cannot be completed before the civic polls scheduled to be held in May, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has built a smaller plant that will be inaugurated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on January 30. She will also inaugurate a water booster pumping station at Chetla on the same day.
The CM will be one of the direct beneficiaries of the water treatment plant. For residents of Harish Chatterjee Street, it means end of acute water crisis that started a year ago when the KMC water supply department sealed a big-diar tube well near Kalighat temple due to arsenic contamination. The water treatment plant was planned to eliminate the dependence of residents of areas like Kalighat and Chetla on groundwater.
The civic body first planned a water treatment plant at Garden Reach which would have a capacity to serve 50 million gallons every day. However, they changed their mind when the CM reportedly asked mayor Sovan Chatterjee to make sure that it was inaugurated before the civic polls. The mayor reportedly expressed his helplessness and said the plant would take another six months to start operating.
The civic authorities then decided to take up a smaller project with a capacity to supply 15 million gallons of water to Kalighat, Chetla and adjoining areas. The bigger plant was supposed to supply filtered water to large areas of Garden Reach, Behala, Tollygunge, Kasba, Jadavpur, Chetla and Kalighat.
A KMC water supply department official admitted that it will be difficult to tap the entire potential of the 15 million gallon plant from early-February.
