The stumbling block in revamping Behala’s drainage system has been removed, with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) agreeing to allow the Begor branch canal to be re-excavated and a pumping station to be set up in the Behala Flying Club compound.

Around 150 metres of the 2.5-km-long Begor branch canal, the main drainage conduit for the city’s southern suburbs, pass through the flying club compound.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) for the past two years has been trying to re-excavate the silted canal but the AAI vetoed the proposal as it came in the way of the proposed extension of the flying club runway.

The impasse was sorted out at a meeting between mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and civic aviation minister Praful Patel in Delhi last Thursday.

“Union minister Praful Patel has okayed the CMC’s proposal to re-excavate the canal and set up a pumping station in the flying club compound. He assured me that AAI’s regional executive director P.K. Singhal would be informed about the decision within two days,” the mayor said on Thursday.

It was decided that the 150-metre stretch of the canal would run through a concrete box, over which the runway will be constructed. The Calcutta Environment Improvement Project (CEIP), which will execute the project, will have to get the design of the concrete box approved by IIT Kharagpur.

“Now that the AAI clearance has come, we hope to connect the underground drainage network of Behala with the Begor branch canal through a pumping station before next monsoon,” said CEIP project director Shantanu Basu.

The civic authorities hope the severity of waterlogging in Behala and its adjoining areas will be much less once the underground sewers are linked with the desilted canal. More than 50,000 residents of Adarsha Nagar, Unique Park, Vivekananda Pally and other low-lying pockets of Behala have been marooned since last Tuesday’s rain.

“The Begor branch canal, which merges with Begor khal, will drain out the sewage and storm water of Adarsha Nagar, Vivekananda Pally, Sreema Pally, Rabindranagar and other areas of wards 129 and 130,” said a CEIP engineer.