After a prolonged wait by residents of the city for a permanent solution to the perennial storm water drainage system, the Kakinada Municipal Corporation has come out with a plan to address the challenge.
In all likelihood, work on the city’s first sewerage project will commence at Etimoga within a few days as the civic body has floated tenders for undertaking the work.
Located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, Kakinada city is situated at a height lesser than the mean sea level. The city is in the shape of a saucer due to which it was not possible either for the British officers or the Indian successors to plan and execute an underground drainage system in this historic city.
The citizens have to face the monsoon blues every year and cope with the inconvenience of inundation for longer hours and its cascading affects. Not just the slums and the low-lying areas, but the heart of the city too witnesses water logging even if it rains barely for 15 minutes.
The Fire Services Department has to press into service its personnel to areas, including the APSRTC complex, Main Road, Balaji Cheruvu Junction and Nookalamma Temple junction, to handle the situation. In the absence of a drainage system, rain water inundates the roads.
The civic authorities have decided to decentralise the plan and build different systems instead of having one major project.
Smart City funds
The ₹900-crore project has now been divided into small works and proposals had been sent to different funding agencies.
“We have received ₹14 crore from the 14th Finance Commission and another ₹77 crore from the Amrut scheme. There is a possibility of spending ₹100 crore from the Smart City funds too,” S. Aleem Basha, Commissioner of the Corporation, told The Hindu .
The perennial problem has come to the notice of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu too, who has made a special reference about it while addressing the recent ‘Maha Sankalpam’ public meeting in the city.
“We are on the job of identifying suitable places in the rest of the city basing on the slope, contours and availability of space for the drainage work,” said Mr. Basha.
