Waterlogging, poor drainage have halted industrial activity in West Bengal Panihati municipality for months

After every moderate shower during the monsoons, there is ankle-deep water outside the main gate of Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd. located at Panihati Municipality in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas.

Texmaco is a multi-unit engineering and infrastructure company. When the correspondent visited its unit at Panihati in the first week of September, there was ankle-deep water extending up to 500 meters from the main gate of the company.

Texmaco Rail and Engineering Limited submerged the pavements and the ground floor of a small office inside the gate. The security guards present at the gate were seen wearing gumboots and rolling their pants up to their knees to avoid the water. Texmaco shut down six units operating in Panihati for a month in the last two years. In mid-August this year, they also closed the units again for a week due to heavy rain. It took about five to six days for the area to dry out again. Approximately 6,500 laborers work in their factories.

A similar situation was also seen at Swalka Kel Pvt. Limited and Jindal Group Pipe Manufacturing Plant, which are located a few metres away from Texmaco in Panihati’s Nilgunj area.

Several shops at the Sen Bajar market near the Panihati Railway Station were also shut for the last two days after a shower. Even as the monsoon are receding there is knee deep water in the market.

Some sellers arranged an extra table and chair to keep the vegetables and fish off the water that submerged the floors of their shops. Several shop owners also complained that they barely get any customer when the roads are waterlogged.

“The waterlogging is resulting in severe losses for us. I have been living here for the last 50 years. The situation was not as bad earlier; it has deteriorated in the last one or two decades. The market association has approached the municipality several times, but nothing has been done,” said Deepak Saha, the secretary of the Sen Bajar shopowners’ association.

Sudipta Mukherjee, the MD of Texmaco admitted that work for several units of the company remains suspended for weeks due to waterlogging.

“Even a minimal amount of rain can cause issues. In August of this year, the units were closed for a week after rainfall. Before this, we had to close the units for over a month due to waterlogging,” Mr. Mukherjee said. He added that the company employs about 6,500 people in Panihati. According to Mr. Mukherjee, the company has taken steps on its part and started projects, including rainwater harvesting, which has eased the situation a bit.

Panihati Municipality, located about 20 km from Kolkata on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, has 35 wards, and more than half of the wards are affected by waterlogging during the monsoon. Over a dozen wards in the civic body remain submerged for months, including wards 23, 24, 25, 26, and 31.

Debasish Dutta, local activist and resident of ward number 23 in the Ramchandrapur Sodepur area of Panihati Municipality has been running from pillar to post for the past several years so that the authorities take note of the problem of waterlogging

“I have sent several letters and communications to leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and Minister for Urban Development Agnimitra Paul, but to no avail. I suffered attacks during the previous regime when I kept protesting and highlighting the issue of waterlogging,” Mr. Dutta said.

The activist said his house and the residence of thousands of people in Panihati lies submerged for months and there is nobody to take note of the issue. Many other residents of the area have claimed that illegal construction, encroachment on railway land and lack of any sewage management has made the situation worse with every passing monsoon.

Like several other civic bodies of the State, the local councillors of Panihati Municipality have resigned and the municipality is run by an administrator.

Reacting to the matter, a senior officer from the Urban Development Department said that a detailed report was sought from the Panihati Municipality last month on the situation of the drainage system in Panihati. “We are reviewing the situation. A report is also being prepared. Necessary steps will be taken,” said a senior engineer from the municipality.

Mr. Dutta has recently written to advisor of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Subrata Gupta, seeking an appointment to discuss the situation with a group of representatives as well business men from Panihati.

“The BJP government wants to revive West Bengal as a destination of industries, however existing industrial units are having to suspend operation due to water logging and Panihati is a prime example of that civic mess,” he said.