The desilting of the Beleghata Circular Canal will be done by May end, a state irrigation department engineer said at a monsoon preparedness meeting chaired by mayor Firhad Hakim on Monday.
The Beleghata canal, which runs from Kolkata station to Chingrighata covering more than 7km, carries the rainwater of large swathes of north, central and east Calcutta.
In a meeting held in 2023, the irrigation department had complained that encroachment along the canal had delayed its desilting.
On Monday, the engineer said residents had been cooperating with them and the desilting was almost done. “We will complete the work by the end of May,” he said.
Hakim told an engineer of the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program (KEIIP) to finish all pending underground drainage work by July 31. Funded by the Asian Development Bank, the KEIIP is a project to improve the city’s drainage and water supply infrastructure.
An officer of the city police told Hakim that “a review of insecure buildings ahead of the monsoon will help”.
About damaged roads, the officer said they will soon send a list of such roads to the KMC for repairs before monsoon.