Monsoon brings hell to showpiece township

KOLKATA: It's still too early to talk about waterlogging but New Town residents talk about it all four seasons. With surprising vehemence and emotion. After all, it's not a very nice feeling to be invited to the "country's best planned township" and left wallowing for days in murky, stinking water.New Town was supposed to have none of the illsthat plague Kolkata proper. But in most cases, it is worse off.The streets of Rajarhat get waterlogged even in the light showers at the beginning of the monsoon and stay that way till the end of the season. The plans for a modern drainage system, taken in the early years, are yet to see the light of day. Some areas of the township remain under water for weeks on end in the wet season. If 15 lakh people do move in by 2015, the township's make-dodrainage system will collapse.Already, the signs are ominous. Manyhousing complexes that are on low-land get marooned in knee-deep water everyyear. "The authorities did not bother to rectify the unevenness of the landscapeof this area. We are facing the consequences. You cannot imagine what it is liketo be swamped every monsoon," said A Bhattacharya, a resident of Action Area-I.What's worse, the open sewers and drainage lines are choked withgarbage. "The sewerage system is already choked. God alone knows what willhappen when more and more people start to come in," said Samir Kumar Mitra, aresident of Greenwood Park housing complex. Hidco planners continueto assure that all will be well in a few years. "We know that once the townshipgets up and running fully, there will be immense pressure on the drainage andsewer lines. So we are carefully setting up the drainage and sewer system. As ofnow, we use pumps to flush out excess water during monsoon," said a Hidcoengineer. Hidco plans to set up four sewerage treatment plants.Waste water from all residential and commercial areas will run under the roadsand get pooled at sewerage lifting stations from where the plants will treat itand pump it into nearby outfall systems. It will be a textbook, zero-pollutionsystem, officials say. The drainage system will also be strengthened. When? Theyhave no answer.