KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to strictly scrutinise the dumping of construction materials on roadsides, which leads to waterlogging in several places across the city. Henceforth, developers of under-construction buildings will have to keep construction materials on the ground floor of an under-construction building immediately after it is built, failing which the civic authorities will issue stop construction work notice.
KMC mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said that developers must keep construction materials on the ground floor of an under-construction building after it is built. He also instructed the buildings department officials to issue stop work notices if materials like sand, cement, and bricks are found dumped on the road near an under-construction building.
Hakim’s direction followed a complaint from Ratna Pal, a resident of Kankurgachi under KMC’s ward 31, during the ‘Talk to Mayor’ event on Friday. The woman complained, “The dumping of construction materials on the road triggers inundation at Shib Krishna Daw Lane where I live.” After this, Hakim asked the officials to check the construction sites and ensure that materials are dumped inside the premises.
As per the existing KMC rules and regulations on C&D waste, building developers should keep the generated C&D within their own premises and directly load the waste onto the KMC waste collecting vehicles or deposit the waste at the designated collection centres. The civic authorities noticed that on several occasions, developers illegally dumped C&D waste on the roadside, open drains, and other vacant plots during the night.
Not only in the city, but haphazard dumping of construction and demolition waste is also a problem in adjacent New Town, where several buildings are coming up. The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) is developing a year-round redressal system for the proper disposal of construction and demolition waste, which is expected to be rolled out from Aug. Residents will be able to inform the authorities about C&D waste dumped at any place in the township for cleaning up at the earliest.
Officials said that an SOP is already in place, stating that building plans of under-construction buildings in New Town will not be sanctioned unless developers submit a prior management plan detailing how they would stack construction materials and dispose of rubbish during construction work.
