CM, mayor ‘differ’ on inauguration of water plant

KOLKATA: At a time when lakhs of residents living along the EM Bypass are being denied filtered drinking water even after chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the newly-built water treatment plant at Dhapa, last week, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is gearing up to inaugurate another treatment plant at Garden Reach.
In fact, chief minister Mamata has been eyeing the inauguration of this plant for bailing out the Trinamool Congress in the coming civic elections.As the plant was planned to cater to the filtered water need of large areas in Garden Reach, Behala, New Alipore, Kalighat, Dhakuria and parts of Tollygunge, Banerjee wanted mayor Sovan Chatterjee to inaugurate the plant in December. But, Chatterjee could not take the risk because the plant could not be made ready by December.
In 2010, the Trinamool Congress had bagged all 18 wards in Behala which helped the party gain an absolute majority. However, with the passage of time, the party could not retain its popularity as residents in large parts of Behala complained of acute water crisis and lack of a proper drainage system which led to inundation of large areas.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who is a Behala councillor, felt the heat and took the initiative to build a new water treatment plant adjacent to the existing waterworks at Garden Reach. The under-construction plant with the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of filtered water everyday is being seen as the trump card for the Trinamool Congress in the coming civic elections. The plant was supposed to be ready by December, this year. But, the KMC water supply department engineers faced hurdles when they needed to build an intake jetty to draw raw water from Hooghly. Lack of required land made the task difficult for KMC. “This is the reason why we could not meet the deadline. But, we will compensate for the loss by opening a small water treatment plant by January,” Chatterjee said.
Last week, Mamata reportedly called up the mayor and reminded him about the opening of the Garden Reach water plant. Banerjee now wants a date in January for the inauguration. Mayor, however, remained non-committal, a source said. Chatterjee, however, asked the KMC water supply department officials to wrap up construction work as early as possible so that the KMC can meet the new deadline. “We are in a dilemma over the inauguration of the plant as work is far from completion. If we are forced to wrap up the project, it will be detrimental for the plant itself,” a KMC water supply department official said.