Ghatal Master Plan gains momentum: State clears ₹10 crore for 5 sluice gates

Kolkata: The state government has given its clearance to set up 5 sluice gates and funds of around Rs 10 crore have been allotted for this purpose. It was learnt that the tendering process for setting up 5 sluice gates has been completed. The tendering process has also started for constructing two pump houses in the Ghatal town in West Midnapore. The Mamata Banerjee government is keen on completing the Ghatal Master Plan on a war footing. The state government is hopeful of completing the project by March 2028. The first meeting of the Ghatal Master Plan monitoring committee was held at the office of SDO Ghatal in January this year which was attended by Ghatal MP Deepak Adhikari (Dev), state Irrigation and Waterways minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia, state Irrigation Secretary Manish Jain, District Magistrate West Midnapore Khursheed Ali Qadri and other concerned officials. Dev appealed to the residents of Ghatal as well as leaders of Opposition parties to extend cooperation and expressed his hope that the project will be implemented by March 2028.

The Ghatal Master Plan is a mega project envisaged back in 1959 to save the low-lying areas in and around Ghatal, located at the base of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, from the annual flood. The overflowing waters of the rainfed rivers like Silabati, Damodar, Rupnarayan and Dwarakeshwar, originating in the plateau, inundate a large number of villages every monsoon, destroying crops and displacing people. The people of Ghatal have been reeling under flood almost every year. They are desperate for relief, Bhunia had said after the meeting. The project was approved in 1980 and a foundation stone was laid in 1982. A year after the Trinamool Congress came to power, the state government in 2012 sent a detailed project report, estimating a total cost of nearly Rs 1200 crore, to the Centre. The BJP-led Union government later changed the funding ratio between the Centre and the state government from 75 per cent-25 per cent to 50 per cent-50 per cent but with no funds being allocated, the project could not take off. Later the Bengal Chief Minister announced that her government would complete the project without any help from the Centre.