BETTER LATE than never. Senior officials of the Kanpur Municipal Corporation are planning to clean drains round the year in waterlogging-prone areas. The officials have already identified waterlogging-prone areas and a proposal is in place.
The officers have proposed the purchase of an excavator to clean drains more effectively and in less time. According to KMC officials, such a machine would lessen their dependence on private parties for drain cleaning jobs. This, they said, would give them more flexibility. Money incurred on hiring such machines would also be saved, they added.Senior officials said the machine, which would cost the KMC Rs 40 lakhs, could be put into service from October-November for cleaning big drains. In this way, cleaning of drains would become a regular process and during monsoons only small drains need to be taken care of.
The officials said since a proposal regarding drain cleaning and maintenance under the Task Force fund had already been sent to the State Government, the amount required for purchasing the machine could be arranged from there. KMC officials said the need to own an excavator arose because fund crunch often came in way of fully utilising the machine.
The KMC already owes over Rs 2 lakh to a private party from whom it had hired an excavator. The machine could not be utilised fully as the owner refused to lend the machine to the KMC till his payment was cleared. Such problems have cut down the pace of KMC’s drain cleaning work and exposed the city to the menace of waterlogging. In such a situation, KMC officials are busy preparing a list of places which are prone to waterlogging. Efforts would be made to reduce the time span of waterlogging in these areas.
{{/usCountry}}The KMC already owes over Rs 2 lakh to a private party from whom it had hired an excavator. The machine could not be utilised fully as the owner refused to lend the machine to the KMC till his payment was cleared. Such problems have cut down the pace of KMC’s drain cleaning work and exposed the city to the menace of waterlogging. In such a situation, KMC officials are busy preparing a list of places which are prone to waterlogging. Efforts would be made to reduce the time span of waterlogging in these areas.
{{/usCountry}}Additional municipal commissioner (I) Captain R Vikram Singh admitted that a proposal had been mooted to purchase an excavator. Efforts were also being made to ensure that drain-cleaning work could be carried out round the year.