The landmark Tallah tank on BT Road that cost Rs 5 lakh to build in 1909 has been granted a renovation budget 1,600 times the total expenditure on its construction.
The approval has come after a three-year delay since the Calcutta Municipal Corporation first realised that the tank needed a timeout.
The cost of overhauling has been estimated at Rs 80 crore, 33 per cent of which would be funded by Delhi under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. The rest of the projected expenditure - Rs 53.6 crore - would be shared by the state government and the CMC, sources said.
Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed gave the green signal to invite bids a couple of weeks ago. The CMC has decided to engage public sector organisation Rites Limited as its project management consultant.
The ravages of more than a century have been visible on the world's largest overhead water reservoir for a long time.
The official status report on the heritage tank, which can hold nine million gallons of water, was prepared by experts from Jadavpur University, IIEST Shibpur, IIT Kharagpur and professional organisations like the CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Tamil Nadu.
"Renovation has been long overdue and we are finally ready to carry out the task," said Bibhas Maity, director general of water supply in the CMC.
In order to make regular maintenance easier, it has been decided to add a lift and an additional set of stairs to reach the tank, which stands 110ft above the ground. Engineers and workmen currently have to climb 180 steps to carry out an inspection.
Clayton Son & Company of Leeds was the contractor for the construction of the Tallah tank. Back then, all construction materials, including special anti-corrosive plates, had been shipped to Calcutta from England. Fabrication was done at the site, though.
Sir Edward Baker, lieutenant governor of undivided Bengal, commissioned the tank on November 18, 1909, in the presence of A. Earle, the then chairman of the CMC.
