Patna: The Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BIUDCO), an engineering arm of the state Urban Development Department (UDD), has prepared a detailed project report (DPR) for building a comprehensive drainage network for Patna.
The DPR, if approved by the state government, would facilitate construction of an integrated drainage system, costing around Rs 900crore, for Patna. This would be after a gap of around 51 years after the state government is mulling a comprehensive plan to get the rid of recurring waterlogging in the rainy season.
A senior officer said that the BUIDCO has forwarded the DPR to the UDD for necessary approval and getting final concurrence of the state cabinet. “If everything goes as per the plan, construction of the drainage system might begin after the monsoon,” he said, adding that the DPR had been prepared in seven segments for easy execution of the project.
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The drainage network being constructed separately in Phulwari Sharif, Danapur and Khagaul, will also be linked with the Patna’s drainage system for disposal of storm water.
NBCC’s drainage for Kankarbagh fails
Waterlogging has become a common feature of the state capital, as it did not see construction of any major drainage network since 1968. “The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) limited, now known as NBCC (India) Ltd, was assigned the work to build drainage system for Kankarbagh in 2008. But the project could not complete,” said a Kankarbagh resident Shankar Kumar.
Reports said that the NBCC’s drainage network turned out to be a damp squib even as the project cost had escalated to Rs 49.10 crore from the initial estimate of Rs 12 crore in phases. The NBCC officials had then pleaded that DPR prepared by the Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad, now merged with BUIDCO, was not found fit to deal with the drainage problem of the colony. Thus the Corporation had to prepare its own DPR.
According to the Patna Municipal Corporation records, the city has 535 drains, including nine big ones, 14 medium and 172 small drainage connected to 38 sump houses. The sump houses collect water from all drains and flush them out in Ganga and Punpun rivers. The overall capacity of the 38 sump houses is 10,600 million litres per day (MLD).
Plastic, solid wastes bane for choking of drains
A flood expert and former IIT engineer blamed the recurring waterlogging to quantum jump in discharge of waste water due to increase in population of the city over the years. “The drains, which have already run out of capacity, generally get chocked due to dumping plastic and other non-degradable solid wastes. Interlinking of sewage network with drains aggravates the problem,” he said.
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A senior officer of the BUIDCO said that the corporation has already taken up the project to build a major concrete drain along the Patna bypass. Localities around the bypass generally remain waterlogged for many weeks and the residents have to move away with their belongings invariably during the monsoon. “The project would complete before the monsoon. Moreover, additional temporary sump stations would be created to provide relief to the people until the new drainage system become operational,” he said.
