‘Talk to Mayor’: Firhad Hakim leaves after 8 years of pushing ahead on water supply, flood control, garbage fronts

KOLKATA: Firhad Hakim took up charge as mayor in 2018 amid a severe water crisis in several parts of the city, particularly in the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt and parts of Behala and neighbourhoods off EM Bypass.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in 2018 had set a target of reducing dependence on groundwater for the residents of Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt by 60% in the next two years. According to an estimate, the KMC water supply department draws 24.3 million gallons of groundwater daily for at least 20 wards that fall under Tollygunge-Jadavpur assembly constituencies.

After the former chief minister Mamata Banerjee in 2018 asked Hakim to supply potable water to residents of Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt, the KMC adopted water augmentation projects for this belt with a deadline to wrap up the entire project by 2026. Though the task is still incomplete, the civic body has completed a major part of the special project, and works are still underway.

Accordingly, the civic body took up augmentation of Dhapa water treatment plant and construction of a new water treatment plant at Dhalai Bridge, Garia.

To ensure that residents of Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt derive benefits from such augmentation, construction of around 40 semi-underground water reservoirs and capsule water booster pumping stations across the belt was approved in 2019.

“I have tried my best to give citizens potable water, especially in the belt where people still depend on groundwater. I have not been able to complete the projects, but they will be completed in the near future, I hope,” said Hakim. He said both the Dhapa and Dhalai Bridge water treatment plants were nearing completion.

Similarly, Hakim was instrumental in getting funds from the state government for upgrading the KMC’s drainage system. In the past three years, the KMC drainage dept has taken up several drainage pumping stations across the city.

While the civic body has completed Nawab Ali Park drainage pumping station in Ekbalpore to take care of waterlogging woes of Kidderpore-Ekbalpore belt, the construction of three other pumping stations in Taratala, Garden Reach and Amherst Street under on.

Hakim on Friday expressed his frustration over the fact that he will not be holding the chair of the mayor when his dream project, Hrishikesh Park drainage pumping station, will be inaugurated.

“I decided to set up a drainage pumping station at Amherst Street to give residents of Thanthania, Sukeas Street, Amherst Street, College Street relief from severe waterlogging. I was told that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as the mayor of Kolkata, was keen to givie these residents relief from inundation. I had laid the foundation stone of the drainage pumping station to pay my respect to the freedom fighter,” said Hakim.

The outgoing mayor had cleared a proposal for modernization of the city’s only waste dumping ground in Dhapa. Hakim wrote to the state finance department for release of funds for setting up a new Dhapa where the huge waste generated daily from the city’s 144 wards will be converted into wealth.

“We have started several projects at Dhapa dumping ground to convert garbage into fertilizer, compressed natural gas, plastic furniture etc. We have identified another chunk of land adjacent to Dhapa where we will take up more such projects,” said a KMC official.