₹1,200 Crore for Ghatal Master Plan, Work to Begin After Durga Puja

Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday announced that ₹1,200 crore would be allocated in the current financial year for the long-pending Ghatal Master Plan, a flood-mitigation project covering parts of Paschim and Purba Medinipur districts.

Adhikari said the Centre would provide 50 per cent of the project cost, while the state government would bear the remaining amount. He directed officials and local legislators to speed up the work and said construction should begin immediately after Durga Puja.

“The work should be completed by June 2027, before the monsoon,” the chief minister said.

Adhikari was speaking at an event in Birsingha, Paschim Medinipur, after paying tribute to social reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar on his 206th birth anniversary.

He said funds from the Disaster Management Department would also be used to procure land required for the project. Local MLAs have been asked to expedite the process, he added.

Ghatal is a low-lying riverine region that faces severe flooding almost every year. The master plan includes dredging riverbeds, strengthening embankments, improving drainage and channelising excess water through canals and rivers into the Rupnarayan River.

The project will cover 11 blocks and five municipalities across the two Medinipur districts. It spans nearly 1,659 square kilometres and affects five Assembly constituencies and three Lok Sabha constituencies.

The plan was initially estimated to cost ₹50 crore, but its projected cost has increased to around ₹1,500 crore after remaining stalled for nearly five decades.

In June, Trinamool Congress MP Deepak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev, had urged the chief minister to ensure the timely implementation of the project. After an administrative review meeting in Kolaghat on June 9, Dev said flood mitigation was the most urgent concern for residents of his Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency.

Dev said he had been campaigning for the project since 2014 and expressed confidence that it would be completed under the present government. In February 2024, former chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the state would implement the plan without waiting for central assistance.

According to state Irrigation waterways, and water resources investigation Minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia, the project is expected to benefit up to 10 lakh people spread across 657 sq km of area in nine blocks — Chandrakona I & II, Daspur I & II, Ghatal, Debra, Panskura, Moyna, Kolaghat. His department has already restored several canals at a cost of ₹341.5 crore.