The scene on a city street after the July 3 deluge. A Telegraph picture

The state government has prepared a detailed plan for drainage and sewerage management in Calcutta and its outskirts.

“A portion of the funds for implementation of the plan, prepared according to the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Committee guidelines, has been secured through various sources. The rest of the money is in the pipeline,” said urban development and municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya.

The minister said the Calcutta Environment Improvement Project (CEIP) plans to spend around Rs 800-900 crore this fiscal to build drainage systems in the added areas of the city and clear outflow channels.

The CEIP’s efforts will be supplemented by projects worth about Rs 500 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). “Howrah and Bally have been allotted Rs 92 crore and the Panihati belt has been given Rs 45 crore under JNNURM. To immediately stop waterlogging in greater Calcutta, about Rs 250 crore has been allotted,” said Bhattacharya.

According to sources, schemes are being prepared to revamp the drainage system in Salt Lake, Kamarhati, Baranagar, Naihati and Bhatpara.

“We will ultimately have to think about a parallel drainage system. The current system has become too old,” admitted the minister.

Environmentalists insist that money alone will not solve the problem. “The drainage and sewerage planning in and around the city has often been faulty. Otherwise, EM Bypass would never have proved a hindrance to the natural flow of drainage water,” said Subrata Sinha, a retired director-general of the Geological Survey of India.

He complained that “the planning has often gone against the basic development plan prepared by the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation, along with Ford foundation, more than 40 years ago”.

A government official said: “The development in the back swamp in and around Calcutta has caused immense damage to the natural carrying capacity of drainage water.”