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Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
KMC hires 286 portable pumps to flush out storm water from added areas
Kolkata: The KMC sewerage and drainage department has hired 286 portable pumps and kept them ready to save residents of added areas such as Behala, Garden Reach, the Tollygunge-Jadavpur belt, Garia and neighbourhoods off EM Bypass from waterlogging during the monsoon. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The department already has 100 such pumps in its possession. According to a civic official, though the sewerage and drainage department was ready to combat waterlogging in some of the waterlogging-prone pockets in the city proper, including Thanthania, Amherst Street, Sukeas Street, Bowbazar, MG Road, CR Avenue, Camac Street and Bhowanipore, the officials were not sure about the fate of the residents in added areas. This is particularly concerning in parts of Behala, Tollygunge and areas off EM Bypass, where there is no underground drainage system and a drainage development project was yet to be completed. "The drainage upgrade project under KEIIP is dragging too much, and there is no hope that we can give the residents relief this monsoon," said a KMC drainage department official. "In such a situation, we have asked our officials in the boroughs to keep portable pumps ready and press them into service in case of a downpour," said a KMC drainage department official. The first major drainage upgrade project for the city's drainage system was taken up by KMC under the Kolkata Environment Improvement Project (KEIP) in 2003. The majority of funds (Rs 1600 crore) from the Asian Development Bank-funded mega project were allocated to develop the drainage system in Behala. However, when the project ended after being delayed for years, the civic engineers found faults with the laying of pipes. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Additionally, several low-lying areas bordering Joka and Maheshtala municipalities were left untouched. This necessitated a second phase of the KEIP drainage upgrade project for Behala. Under the second phase, drainage development work is in progress in areas including Silpara, Sakuntala Park, Sakherbazar, Upen Banerjee Road and parts of James Long Sarani. This work has added to the waterlogging woes, conceded a KMC drainage department official.
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Kannamaly highway siege in Kerala over sea incursion called off after three days following talks
The three-day-long siege of the Fort Kochi-Alapuzha State highway at Kannamaly in Ernakulam, Kerala, to protest against the worsening sea incursion was called off by Wednesday afternoon based on an understanding reached during the deliberations held by the protesters and a team of Revenue and Irrigation officials. Deputy Collectors of disaster management and revenue recovery, the Kochi tahsildar and the major Irrigation department executive engineer participated in the talks on Tuesday evening. The highway blockade at Cheriyakkadavu was lifted shortly after the talks held on Tuesday. Though the siege at Kannamaly was also called off simultaneously, a few protestors resumed it on Wednesday morning in contravention of the understanding reached during the talks. Traffic through the highway had to be diverted when the blockade was in place. 'The protest being largely unorganised, a few youngsters among them resumed the siege at Kannamaly on Wednesday morning. A majority of the protestors found this against the consensus reached at the meeting and alerted us. Following this, the Kannamaly Station House Officer reached the spot and warned the protestors of the registration of cases if they persisted with the siege,' said Revenue department sources. The siege of the State highway started on Friday evening when the sea erosion turned particularly bad. It was called off following an assurance given during the talks that the component for the Chellanam Panchayat of the ₹306-crore Asian Development Bank-funded project to protect vulnerable shores in Kerala from sea erosion would be separated and executed on a priority basis. The proposal to speed up the project in Chellanam would be placed at a regional-level review meeting to be attended by the Chief Minister and the District Collector on July 3. However, the protest rally from Cheriyakkadavu to Kannamaly will be held as planned on Wednesday evening. Besides, priests from the Kochi and the Alleppey archdioceses will sit on a day-long hunger strike at BOT Junction in Thoppumpady, demanding a permanent solution to the sea incursion problem, on June 20. The Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi has also called for a hartal on June 30, demanding that a tetrapod-based seawall and groyne series be pit in place to stave off marauding waves.
Time of India
16-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Mayor's July deadline for Behala drainage work
Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday set a July deadline for Kolkata Environment and Infrastructure Improvement (KEIIP) to wrap up the Behala drainage development project. During the 'Talk to Mayor' interaction on Friday, where a Sakherbajar resident urged the mayor to take corrective measures before the monsoon, Hakim expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in completing the upgrade work. A spell of heavy showers lays bare the sorry state of the drainage system in Behala. Large parts of Behala get inundated after every downpour. The familiar scenes of people wading through knee-deep water has made residents of Behala keep their fingers crossed before the onset of monsoon. According to Behala residents, the drainage modernization project has been dragging on endlessly with no signs of improvement in the waterlogging scenario. According to a KMC official, the worst sufferers have been the residents of Motilal Gupta Road, MG Road and Shakuntala Park, among other areas. The first major drainage upgrade project for the city's drainage system was taken up by the KMC under KEIP in 2003. A majority of funds (Rs 1600 crore) of the Asian Development Bank-funded mega project was allocated to develop the drainage system in Behala. However, when the project ended after getting delayed for years, the civic engineers found fault with the laying of pipes to convert open drains into underground ones. This apart, several low-lying areas bordering Joka and Mahestala municipalities were left untouched. That necessitated a second phase of the KEIP drainage upgrade project for Behala. Under the second phase, large drainage development work is under progress in areas including Silpara, Shakuntala Park, Sakherbazar, Upen Banerjee Road and parts of James Long Sarani. This ongoing work has added to the waterlogging woes in Behala, conceded a KMC drainage department official.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Cabinet clears 351cr for Wayanad township plan
Thiruvananthapuram: The state cabinet on Wednesday granted administrative sanction for Rs 351 crore for the Wayanad township programme. Work on the project will commence once KIIFCON, a subsidiary of KIIFB, issues technical clearance. The cabinet also gave conditional approval for appointing Mumbai-based STUP Consultants Ltd to prepare the detailed project report for the proposed Sabarimala greenfield international airport. The consultancy fee, fixed by KSIDC, is Rs 4.366 crore. A committee led by the chief secretary has been tasked with resolving implementation hurdles for the airport project. The cabinet approved covering the medical expenses of renowned sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman, who is undergoing treatment in a private hospital. The funds will be released from the chief minister's distress relief fund (CMDRF). Approval was also given to a Rs 57.56 crore project under the PM JANMAN scheme for electrifying 261 tribal houses across 22 tribal settlements in the state. In addition, projects worth Rs 2.76 crore for electrifying 84 more houses will be submitted to the govt. The cabinet cleared the Asian Development Bank-funded 24x7 drinking water project to be implemented by the Kochi Municipal Corporation under the Kerala Urban Water Supply Improvement Project. A consultancy contract for the loan implementation support unit will be signed for Rs 299 crore.
Express Tribune
03-05-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Water project components' contract cancelled
The Punjab government's project steering committee has cancelled a contract worth Rs20.4 billion awarded to a foreign firm for Lots 2 and 3 of the Chahan Dam Water Supply project and has ordered a fresh tendering process following a fact-finding investigation by the Chief Minister's Inspection Team (CMIT). The Asian Development Bank-funded project had originally been awarded to a Turkish firm, Five-H Insaat, despite the successful joint venture bid having also included a Pakistani company, Qasim & Co. The steering committee questioned how the contract was awarded solely to the foreign firm when the bid was won as a joint venture. CMIT's intervention, prompted by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, is being credited for preventing a potential financial scandal. A high-level meeting chaired by Punjab Planning and Development Board Chairman Barrister Nabeel Awan, and attended by all relevant secretaries, their representatives, and Hamza Salik, Project Director of the "Dream Project," reviewed CMIT's findings before deciding to cancel the contract. The committee also decided that necessary action against the officials responsible for the contract award would be taken by the chief secretary. Additionally, in line with the Chief Minister's directive, all future foreign-funded projects will be reviewed by the steering committee every three months to ensure transparency. The contract in question had sparked legal action from Qasim & Co., who challenged the exclusion in court. After the matter was brought to the chief minister's notice, she instructed CMIT to conduct a fact-finding inquiry and submit a report within seven days. The CMIT investigation, led by Chairman Salman Ejaz along with members Ahsan Waheed, Ghulam Abbas Warraich, and an engineering specialist, found significant flaws in the procurement process, including the absence of regular quarterly reviews despite the project being foreign-funded. Now, under the guidance of the Chairman of the Planning and Development Wing Punjab, the Steering Committee of Dream Project-1 will decide within three weeks whether to reinstate or fully terminate the contract. If cancelled, the contract will be retendered. For context, Lot 1 of the Dream Project-1bringing 12 million gallons of water daily from Chahan Damhad previously been awarded for Rs6.36 billion to a joint venture between China Construction Third Engineering and a Pakistani partner. Meanwhile, Lot 4, worth Rs7.19 billion, was awarded to a joint venture of MS Mirakhan KBDL and Five-H Insaat. Lot 4 covers the upgrade of filtration plants, pumping stations, and old pipelines at Rawal and Khanpur dams to ensure 24/7 water supply to the Khayaban-e-Sir Syed area.
