Identify lanes for cycling: UDMA to civic bodies
At places like New Town, there are existing cycle lanes spanning over a stretch of around 35km under the New Town Kolkata Development Authority.
In a bid to solve water-logging woes in the Golf Garden area, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will construct a drainage pumping station in ward 94 under Borough – X of the civic body. The funds for the project will be provided by urban development and municipal affairs (UDMA) department of the state government under the ‘Green City Mission’ scheme.
It is learnt from a KMC official that the Golf Garden area gets water-logged every monsoon and the residents complain about the woes every year during the season. The area is prone to waterlogging and gets inundated for a considerable period even in moderate rainfall during the monsoon. It was realised that a drainage pumping station is needed along with inlet and outlet piping system to drain out the storm water to Tolly Nullah in order to reduce the duration of water logging.
In a bid to put an end to the problem, a scheme was prepared and the detailed project report on the same was sent to the state government with the approval of the mayor. The administrative sanction for the scheme was received in January 2017 from the UDMA under the ‘Green City Mission’ scheme.’
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The estimated project cost was Rs 35.82 crores, approximately. However, it is learnt that tenders for the project was floated twice but no bidders had turned up. A tender was floated for the third time and a financial bid was finally opened on February in 2018.
The KMC official confirmed that the work order for the project has been given to Mackintosh Burn Ltd. and the final project cost stands at Rs 39.5 crore, approximately. The proposal was considered in a mayor-in-council meeting this year in July.
Since the construction company has quoted a price that is nine per cent above the initial estimated value, the KMC has asked for approval of additional fund of Rs 4.1 crores from the UDMA department and in case it is not approved, KMC will bear the additional cost. The mayor Firhad Hakim today inaugurated the booster pumping station at Nazrul Park.
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