JOIN US Even as the monsoon is a just a few weeks away, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has so far desilted only 15,000 of the two lakh sewage manholes in the city. The delay has resulted in overflowing of the sewage though it rained moderately in the last few days.
The corporators had sought desilting machines for each of the 198 ward. However, the BWSSB has only 118 machines. The proposal to procure 30 more machines has not made progress.
BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief Kemparamaiah said the board had conducted a massive drive to de-silt manholes in the last three months. “There is a target to desilt at least 1,000 manholes every day and this will solve the problem of sewage overflowing”, he said. Some houses were illegally letting rainwater into these sewage lines when ever there is water logging in the low laying areas, he added.
He said the BWSSB gets around 600 to 1,000 complaints daily. The prominent of them is non-supply of water and leakages. Complaint of overflowing sewage is common during the monsoon.
On the other, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) said they on an average they get about 1,000 complaints a day. Most complaints are related to power breakdown, damage of electric poles and transformers. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Managing Director, Bescom told Deccan Herald that they need at least three hours to fix an electric pole, if it is damaged due to a tree fall and 24 hours to repair damaged transformers. “However, we have backup mobile transformers to supply power if there is any delay in repair.
“Whenever there is a complaint, we take minimum of two to six hours to resolve the issue”, he said. Pandey said there are 146 vehicles each with five lineman and 26 cranes to address the complains.