A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, who won from a prestigious Kolkata constituency in the recent West Bengal Assembly election, plans to revive key environment-related agendas linked to the city, particularly the constituency he represents in the Assembly.
Swapan Dasgupta, a senior journalist and politician slated to play an important role in the BJP-run state government, told this correspondent in an exclusive interview that he intends to chart out a plan to conserve iconic environment-related landmarks like the Adi Ganga, tramways and the Rabindra Sarovar soon. He would take help of judicial verdicts on the agendas alongside exploring financial support and technical solutions.
While most of the issues are central to resurrecting the southern part of the city — Dasgupta’s Rashbehari constituency covers nine core south Kolkata municipal wards and is spread over 12.5 sq km — they also are critically linked to the overall well-being of Kolkata.
“We need to look at verdicts of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and other judicial forums on these agendas; and also explore appropriate technical solutions and funding; but I believe everything is possible as we have a political will to do that,” claimed a confident Dasgupta. The Padma Bhushan winner made it clear that the initiative would be in his capacity as the Assembly member for the Rashbehari constituency.
This correspondent has also spoken to officials and experts to find out how the rejuvenation is technically possible.
Adi Ganga, the nearly 75-kilometre-long original channel of India’s national river Ganga of which around 15.5 km flows through the southern part of Kolkata, has historically been one of the major drainage and navigational channels of the city. Three centuries back, this was the main outflow of the Ganga to the the Bay of Bengal. Currently though, it has turned into a sewer buried under garbage and the Metro rail network. It has also been encroached upon in various places within and outside the city and even converted into personal ponds and homes at the southern fringes of the city.
“We need to reduce its pollution level, remove encroachment and dredge Adi Ganga to bring back its free flow as much as possible. Apart from its environmental value for the city's sustenance, the iconic Kalighat temple is also located at its bank," Dasgupta pointed out, adding that an assessment is required to chart out its revival roadmap.
“We also need to understand what the judiciary, especially the NGT directed about the Adi Ganga,” added Dasgupta, who refuses to call it Tolly’s Nulla as mentioned in most government documents. “Tolly’s Nulla, the portion dug by a Briton named William Tolly, is only a small part of the much-longer ancient channel called the Adi Ganga,” explained Dasgupta.
“It is very difficult to completely rejuvenate the Adi Ganga as the Metro rail has permanently affected its flow. But definitely several achievable steps can be taken like stopping encroachment or waste dumping to minimise pollution and improving water flow,” observed environment expert Mohit Roy, also a BJP leader, who moved the West Bengal Pollution Control Board and courts when the Metro rail planned constructions on the river bed. However, he could not stop the project.
“There is no dearth of money, we just lack the political will and administrative efficiency. Earlier, hundreds of crores got wasted, and now the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has got around Rs 800 crore of World Bank funding under the Namami Gange project. But we are yet to see any substantiative improvement,” admitted a senior KMC official.
“We need to make an effort to revive tramway systems in the city, and must remember that they should not be treated just as heritage but as an effective part of the city’s transport infrastructure in this era of environmental and climatic challenges,” pointed out Dasgupta. He added that autorickshaws have been filling up the transport space as trams are being marginalised. The newly elected MLA also advocated for introducing modern trams in the city, alongside efficient ones already in service.
Trams now ply in over 400 global cities but are operational in India only in Kolkata. Here too, they face extinction with the earlier Trinamool government having decided to completely stop services, barring on a small heritage track around the Maidan for tourists. As a result, services that once boasted about 450 trams in over 50 routes, have now declined to only 7 to 10 trams running in 2 to 3 routes across Kolkata.
The decline started in the Left era and the process quickened during the Trinamool years. According to many, the vacant land of the 16 sprawling tram depots was the real trigger for discontinuation of trams as they were seen as real estate bounties by the state government struggling with its finances.
“The Kolkata tram system must be modernised with improved services and should also be integrated with other public transport modes to make multi-modal transportation system of Kolkata energy efficient, safe and sustainable,” pointed out Bhargav Mitra, a transport expert from IIT Kharagpur. Mitra suggested that technical studies should be undertaken to finalise both the short-term and long-term roadmap for trams’ revival in Kolkata, including modernization. He added that the tram has the potential to be developed as an efficient demand management instrument in Kolkata city.
Rabindra Sarobar, a 73-acre lake and green verge in a city that has the least green quotient within India’s metro cities, is drying as its water level is gradually plummeting; alleged Dasgupta, who is a morning walker. The lake was christened as a national lake in 1997 under the National Lake Conservation Plan by the Union environment ministry.
“If this trend continues, the lake someday may completely dry up. We need to know how the lake water is getting lost. We need dredging. There are other issues like encroachment and pollution concerning the lake. But it may be easier to address them. We need to explore if we can sustain the lake by taking advantage of its national status,” pointed out the newly elected MLA. He also expressed concern about “too much light” in the area that affects the local biodiversity.
A senior urban development official however pointed out that there has been no evidence with them that vindicates the “loss of lake water” theory that is also propagated by some environmentalists concerned with the lake. “We feel that the water level dips during certain periods of the year mainly due to heightened evaporation under tremendous heat and lack of rainfall; if the withdrawal of groundwater is the reason, then the problem would have happened around the year,” said the official.
“A detailed assessment done by Jadavpur University experts has shown that dredging is required in some parts of the lake. The report has been submitted to NGT and we await their direction,” stated the official.
Groundwater expert Pradip Sikdar explained that it is unlikely that water is getting lost from the base of the lake as a thick clay layer exists there, insulating the lake water. But, the water may be lost from the western side of the lake. “Data shows that there is a 10-to-15-metre compact clay layer at the base of the lake that prevents water loss, as well as in the northern, southern and eastern sides. But there is possibility of water loss from the western side as the clay layer gets gradually thinned out, allowing the water to trickle out,” said the expert.