Plan to clean Siliguri river

TT, 20 Feb 2019, Siliguri: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation has chalked out a plan to clean the Mahananda river that flows through the city and carry out some landscaping on the banks of the river, mayor Asok Bhattacharya said here on Tuesday.

"Under the Green City Mission, we have recently got administrative approval of Rs 10 crore from the state government. We will spent Rs 5 crore for the beautification of river banks and cleanliness initiatives. An additional sum of Rs 30 lakh would be spent on the development of the immersion ghat that is on the left bank of the Mahananda near Airview More," he said.

The Mahananda river that passes through Siliguri is in a deplorable condition. There are encroachments on most areas of its banks. Several illegal occupants have raised both temporary and concrete building and cattle sheds.

Such a situation had made Calcutta-based environmentalist Subhas Datta file a PIL with the National Green Tribunal, seeking intervention. The NGT has passed a set of orders to the administration, the SMC and some other agencies but there hasn't been much improvement in the situation so far.

The SMC also plans to beautify the locations of the statues of different eminent personalities spread across the city.

"There are plans to make a small garden with a fountain at these locations," said an official.

Sources in the SMC said the Bengal municipal affairs department had asked the civic body on February 5 to submit project proposals.

Accordingly, on February 12, the civic body has submitted 58 schemes in total, the estimated cost of which is around of Rs 253 crores.

The schemes include infrastructure development works in slum areas, drinking water supply, roads and drainage system..