Life came to a halt on Wednesday as rains inundated the township’s streets. It was the same story last Friday. But this is just the beginning. 

Residents of Salt Lake need to brace themselves this monsoon for there is bad news ahead. Three of the seven pumps meant to suck water out of our streets are out of order and there is no hope of even one of them getting repaired this season. 

Knee-dip in problems

Pedestrians at Karunamoyee Bus Stand are being nudged by gentle waves these days after every few hours of rains. “Sector V is flooded and no autos are plying from there. I somehow managed to board a very crowded bus from my office there to Karunamoyee and even here there is so much water! I don’t know how I’ll wade to the S9 bus stand opposite Bidyut Bhavan,” said Priyanka Mukherjee, as the water rose above her ankles. 

It’s worse inside Karunamoyee Housing Complex as even moderate rainfall has been leading to waterlogging. Residents on a harmless trip to the market are returning looking like they’ve sailed rough seas.
The blocks fare no better. “The lanes inside our block are getting waterlogged frequently and it is taking a lot of time to drain out,” said Sandip Kumar Agarwal, a resident of HB Block, on Friday.

The stretch under the Metro channel near City Centre turns into a water park for streetchildren and motorists have a harrowing time negotiating it. Stopping is tricky as there is a chance of water entering through the vehicle’s tailpipe when the driver steps off the accelerator.   

“This road looks like a canal after rains. As it is, it is often dug up due to the ongoing Metro construction but this one really takes the cake,” said Sourav Banerjee, a resident of the nearby DB Block.
It’s the same story at PNB Island, Baisakhi, AJ, CJ, BJ and LB blocks. The concrete road alongside Eastern Drainage Canal, from EE Block to Jal Vayu Vihar, gets waterlogged too. 

“It is shocking to see Salt Lake getting waterlogged to this extent. On Wednesday, the water did not recede even after two hours of the rains stopping. We’re facing this problem since 2012,” said Tanusree Bhattacharya, an FD Block resident.

BJ Block’s Nimai Chand Gupta had several inches of water in the driveway of his house on Wednesday and he blames the unmindful laying of tarmac for it. “In the name of repairs new layers of asphalt have been dumped on our streets and levelled out. But nobody cared for the gradient. And no one from the civic body has cleared the drains in this area. Fallen leaves and other debris don’t let the water pass. Such is the state that a few of us have to venture out of homes with sticks to clear out the drains. But even then, the area remains flooded,” said Gupta.

For residents of AN Block, on the edge of Sector V, monsoon is a nightmare. “As it is, the road from Midland Park to Institute of Advanced Management is in terrible shape. During the rains it worsens and drivers and pedestrians cannot see the potholes due to waterlogging. Schoolchildren have tripped on these craters and the elderly avoid the stretch altogether. The garbage dumped on the sides of the road floats and the entire area stinks after every shower,” said Debashsis Sen Roy, an AN Block resident.

Garbage not getting cleared and floating in the rainwater is developing into a common cause of complaint across the township. 

“Trash is lying around inside our complex for several days now. It’s an eyesore and is unhygienic,” said Shipra Chakraborty, a resident of Karunamoyee. 
The situation is similar in HA Block, where residents claim their vat hasn’t been cleared all week. 

Systems failure 

The township is designed such that some of the accumulated rainwater will drain naturally into Kestopur Canal and Eastern Drainage Canal. But since this is not enough, the civic body had purchased seven pumps in the Left Front regime. 

These seven pumps are all located in the pumping station near Calcutta Armed Police Camp. The pumps have underground pipes connected to various gully pits of the township and when it starts raining, they are to be switched on. The pumps then suck water from the roads down the gullypits and empty it into the canals. 
But only four of the seven pumps are working this season. Two of the three out-of-order pumps are spoilt beyond repair and have been lying in that state for several years now. 
“The pumps are ancient,” said a source in the drainage and pumping department. 

Blame game 

A senior source at the erstwhile civic body says they had called for bids to buy new pumps. “But the number of companies who responded to the tender calls was not adequate so the bids had to be cancelled,” he said.
However, a former chairman-in-council member blames the lax attitude of the civic body’s engineers for the situation. “The state government had cleared Rs 6.32 crore to revamp Salt Lake’s drainage system in 2014. But despite receiving the funds, work could not be started. The lackadaisical attitude of the engineers was to blame. But now it is too late to take any measure because even if the work starts now, by the time it finishes the monsoons would be over," said Jana.

Since the Bidhannagar Municipality got dissolved last month, the reins are in the hands of the administrator Pawan Kadyan. “We are deploying teams to clear out the water wherever required. We are working on an emergency basis and our teams are even working at night to expedite the process,” Kadyan said.

Are you facing water-logging problems?
Write to saltlake@abpmail.com or 
The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001