Experts deliberate on rejuvenating Tolly's Nullah

Experts at a workshop here deliberated on rejuvenation of the 'Adi Ganga Tolly's Nullah', a canal which is the backbone of the drainage system of the metropolis.

Officials from the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, academics, environmental activists and students from India, US and Bangladesh exchanged inputs at the seven-day workshop, which ended on Thursday in the city campus of IIT Kharagpur here, the institute said in a statement Friday.

The participants deliberated on how best these corridors can be rejuvenated and reconnect the dots between the canals and livelihood matters, considering the fact that any revival of the canal involved innovative, realistic urban planning with temples, markets and squatter settlements located alongside the banks.

The old canal, backbone of the citys drainage system, has almost been wrecked by unchecked construction, related land-fill, the lack of proper waste management and periodic maintenance in past years, the participants observed.

"Multi-faceted, trans-disciplinary approach and planning is required to address the complex issues...Another aspect which surfaced in our exchange was the need to go beyond merely installing sewage treatment plants and find ways to revive the heritage river from Hastings to the Bay of Bengal," Prof Jenia Mukherjee of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT KGP said.

Attending the meet, IIT KGP Director Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said, "Trans-disciplinary work is needed to come up with new, innovative and quickly implementable ideas, merging heritage with modern knowledge."