Workers clear the Bharalu channel at Sarabbhati in Guwahati on Sunday. (PTI)

Guwahati, July 13: The Kamrup (metro) district administration today used Watermaster, a special kind of dredger, to desilt the Bharalu river and also conducted eviction drives in several parts of the city.

The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority last year bought the city’s only amphibian dredger from a Finland-based company at a cost of Rs 6 crore to restore five major waterbodies in the city.

It was part of a Rs 11-crore restoration plan launched by the Guwahati development department minister Ajanta Neog and supposed to be completed within three years.

The Kamrup (metro) administration has found that along with illegal settlements along its banks, gradual siltation has added to reduction of water-carrying capacity of the Bharalu, the main water channel that passes through the city. The river which once provided potable water has now become a dustbin of city’s residents and various markets.

“The administration today used a Watermaster at the Bharalu to make it deeper and wider. Work began from the Charabbhati area,” said an official of the district administration.

The district administration began the eviction drive from the Bharalu after nine persons died in electrocution and landslide when torrential rain lashed the city last month.

The step was taken after chief minister Tarun Gogoi asked senior officials of the departments concerned to clear encroachments from water channels and wetlands to prevent such deaths in the future.

As many as 204 pucca houses, 231 kutcha houses and 23 walls were demolished and 25 bighas of land were cleared during the eviction drive along the Bharalu.

Sources said the district administration had also suspended two officials who had earlier provided wrong information to a resident that there was no encroachment along the river.

The district administration today continued its eviction drive. In the Joyanagar Bormotoria area near river Bahini, the administration demolished 11 pucca houses, two kutcha houses and eight walls. Eight bighas of land were cleared in the area. In other parts of the river, the administration demolished one wall and three pucca houses.

At Jalukbari on National Highway 37, the administration demolished 48 shops, several walls and cleared 700 metres of drainage. At Basistha Chariali on the highway, 52 shops, three walls and three temples were demolished.