Action plan to clean up rivers & potable water project in Siliguri

Amitava Banerjee | MP| 12 December 2019 | Darjeeling: Out of the 350 highly-polluted rivers, 17 are in West Bengal. The State Pollution Board is drawing up an action plan to make the contaminated rivers pollution free. A drinking water supply project is also on the anvil for Siliguri.

The newly constructed regional office of the State Pollution Board was inaugurated by Environment and PHE minister Soumen Mahapatra in Siliguri on Thursday.

Located in Matigara, Siliguri, the building has been constructed on 19 kathas of land. The construction cost was Rs. 3 Crore 26 lakhs. The office will cater to the districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.

Incidentally during the 2011 earthquake the State Pollution Board office in Siliguri was badly damaged.

Finally the building was demolished and the new building was constructed in its place.

"There are 17 rivers in the state that have been earmarked as highly polluted. Out of the 17, Mahananda in North Bengal and Vidhyadhari in South Bengal are the most polluted," said Kalyan Rudra, Chairman, State Pollution Control Board.

The state government has drawn up action plans to make them pollution-free.

"We have initiated talks with a German company JIJ for this. They have agreed to help us with setting up water treatment plants and these projects. If everything goes well we can revive the rivers in the next two years," added the Chairman.

Siliguri is all set to get a new drinking water project.

"There is drinking water scarcity. The drinking water is not sufficient for the 47 wards. The PHE will initiate a drinking water project. The Detail Project Report is being drawn up. We will start the project in the next financial year. Once the project is commissioned the drinking water problem in Siliguri will be resolved," stated the PHE Minister.