KOLKATA: A sprawling water body, over which the viaduct of the New Garia-Airport Metro has come up, is being restored as per Calcutta High Court order. With the Phase 1 of the New Garia-Airport corridor nearing completion, the implementing agency, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), has started restoring a 7-acre water body in Patuli off EM Bypass. It includes four large ponds that had to be de-watered to facilitate the construction of 19 Metro piers.
The restoration work to bring the water body in Patuli near the Baishnabghata-Patuli Township back to life is being done in compliance with a Calcutta High Court order passed in 2012. Local residents had filed a PIL against the proposed Metro alignment through the water body in KMC’s Ward 101. The 32km New Garia-Airport Metro will link Kavi Subhas on the southern fringes of the city with the airport through EM Bypass. RVNL is chasing an October 2022 deadline to launch the 5kmstretch between Kavi Subhas terminal and Hemanta Mukherjee station at the Ruby crossing.
“The restoration work is mostly done at night so that the trash and mud can be disposed of at Dhapa,” said an RVNL official. The entire restoration should be over in the next one month, following which RVNL will submit a letter about the compliance of court order to the fisheries department. The fisheries and environment departments will check the water quality.
