Waterlogging on Madan Mohan Burman Street in 2007. A Telegraph picture

A pumping station that was supposed to deliver residents of Madan Mohan Burman Street from monsoon flooding this year won’t be ready until October, by which time the rain will have gone to Spain.

The civic authorities had claimed last year that the pumping station planned at Marcus Square would keep most parts of central Calcutta, especially Madan Mohan Burman Street, “dry” through the monsoon. But the company given the contract to set up the station, Mackintosh Burn, has since informed the Calcutta Municipal Corporation that the June deadline was impossible to meet.

“The police delayed giving us permission for road excavation. We also lost time in shifting the underground water supply network,” a spokesman for Mackintosh Burn said.

The worst instances of waterlogging last year were in Ultadanga, Madan Mohan Burman Street and Gokhale Road. Pumping stations were planned later in all three places with a budget of Rs 11 crore, and Mackintosh Burn was awarded the contracts.

“The pumping stations in Ultadanga and Gokhale Road will be commissioned by the start of the monsoon and I hope people living in those areas will face less waterlogging this year. Mackintosh Burn has informed us that it will hand over the two pumping stations by June,” mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said.

A survey revealed that the sewer lines in the worst-affected pockets of the city are incapable of draining out water quickly after a heavy shower. “We then decided to lift the rainwater that accumulates on the roads and pour it directly into the nearby canals. This was the idea behind setting up three pumping stations. The CMC is financing the project on its own,” municipal commissioner Alapan Bandopadhyay said.

Chief engineer (sewage) Tushar Ghosh said each station would siphon out 9,320 gallons of water from the roads to the canals.

The Ultadanga pumping station will drain out water directly into the Kestopur canal and the one at Marcus Square will pour water into the Beleghata canal. The Gokhale Road pumping station will divert water to the underground sewer along AJC Bose Road.

The civic authorities have promised to ensure that residents of Congress Exhibition Road, Free School Street and Gurusaday Road experience “less waterlogging” than in previous years.

“The capacity of the underground sewer pipes have already been increased by nearly three times in those areas,” an official said.

Golf Green and Anwar Shah Road may, however, not get a respite. Ghosh said these areas could suffer because of blockages caused in Tolly’s Nullah by the Metro Railway project at Kudghat.