Sept. 4: Drained portions of the 10,000sq m College Square pool where a veteran swimming trainer drowned last month have revealed several potential death traps.

Concrete poles with iron jutting out and bamboo stumps across the pool area were some of the hidden dangers that swimmers would regularly test their luck against until disaster struck on August 11.

Kajal Dutta, a retired Customs officer who trained swimmers for competition, drowned after he was possibly trapped in the bamboo scaffolding under an unauthorised extension of a starting block. The 67-year-old had dived in to look for prawns, colleagues said.

The structure belongs to one of the six clubs that share the College Square pool, a poorly maintained mass of water that passes off as a sprawling swimming arena. "Now that we have seen what lies beneath, it seems almost a miracle that there has not been more than one incident," said a regular swimmer.

Sources in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said much of the pool had been drained to pull down some concrete pillars in the middle and remove the bamboo stumps. The civic authorities intend to build walls to block the gaps under the starting blocks.

Metro visited College Square and spoke to civic officials to find out if and how the proposed changes would make a difference to safety in north Calcutta's only community swimming arena.

Scaffolding scare

About 25ft of a starting block used by the 89-year-old Sailendra Memorial Club had been allegedly built without the CMC's sanction. The scaffolding used to hold up the structure during the construction stage was never removed, allegedly causing the accident a few weeks ago that killed a trainer.

While the civic authorities have gone ahead with their plans, the Bengal Amateur Swimming Association is not too pleased. Ramanuj Mukhopadhyay, president of the association, said the CMC should have considered the lack of infrastructure for competitive swimming before taking such a decision.

"A starting block is used to prepare for competition. How will our swimmers compete if they do not have infrastructure?"

A swimmer taking part in a race leaps or flips into the water from the starting block when the referee shouts "Go!". After going a certain distance in the designated lane, the swimmer does a vault and turns back towards the starting block.

Trainers said they required more space on a starting block for their wards to practice together.

Pole position

Once the pool was drained, CMC engineers discovered that the extended portion of the starting block wasn't the only unauthorised construction. Concrete poles that could cause an accident stood on the eastern and western sides, some with iron rods dangerously protruding from the structure.

Four poles near the starting block used by Bowbazar Bayam Samity on the eastern side of the swimming arena are to be pulled down. A club member said the poles had long been "abandoned" and that pulling these down would not affect training in any way.

The six swimming clubs sharing the College Square pool are YMCA, Calcutta University Institute, Bowbazar Bayam Samity, Sailendra Memorial Club, Self Culture Institute and College Square Swimming Club. It wasn't immediately clear why the poles had been built and left like that, putting lives at peril.

Pillar hazard

The CMC plans to block gaps between the pillars supporting the starting blocks across the pool.

"We will build brick walls to block these gaps. We do not want a repeat of what happened. The idea is to ensure that nobody gets trapped in the gap between two pillars," an engineer said.

Polo posts

Bamboo poles dug into the muddy floor of the pool are used as goalposts for water polo, according to a security guard at the College Square swimming arena.

The CMC has decided to uproot these poles for safety reasons, although that has got the clubs worried about how to fix goalposts during water polo competitions.

"The CMC engineers could have consulted us before taking this decision. A person has died and that is unfortunate, but that does not mean we should be denied basic infrastructure for practice," swimming association president Mukhopadhyay said.