Waterlogging and poor drainage halted industrial activity in the West Bengal village of Panihati for months
After every light shower during the monsoons, the water is ankle-deep outside the main gate of Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd. situated in Panihati Municipality in West Bengal North 24 Parganas.
Texmaco is an engineering and infrastructure company with many units. When a correspondent visited its Panihati unit in the first week of September, ankle-deep water was up to 500 meters from the company’s main gate.
Texmaco Rail and Engineering Limited submerged the walkways and the ground floor of a small office inside the gate. The security guard present at the gate wore rubber boots and rolled up her pants to her knees to avoid the water. Texmaco has shut down six units operating at Panihati for a month in the last two years. In the middle of August this year, the blocks were closed again for a week due to heavy rain. It took about five to six days for the area to dry out again. Approximately 6,500 workers work in their factories.
A similar situation was also seen at Swalka Kel Pvt. Limited and Jindal Group Pipe Manufacturing Plant which are located a few meters from Texmaco in Nilgunj area of Panihati.
Several shops in the Sen Bajar market near the Panihati railway station were also closed for the past two days after the shower. Even as the monsoon recedes, the market is knee-deep in water.
Some vendors set up an extra table and chair to keep the vegetables and fish out of the water that submerged the floors of their shops. Several shop owners also complained that they hardly get any customers when the roads are waterlogged.
“Waterlogging has resulted in huge losses for us. I have been living here for the last 50 years. Earlier the situation was not that bad, it has worsened in the last two decades. The market association has approached the municipality several times but nothing has been done,” said Deepak Saha, secretary of the Sen Bajar Shop Owners Association.
Sudipta Mukherjee, MD of Texmaco admitted that work for several units of the company remains suspended for weeks due to waterlogging.
“Even a minimal amount of rain can cause problems. In August this year, the blocks were closed for a week after rain. Before that, we had to close the blocks for more than a month due to waterlogging,” Mr Mukherjee said. He added that the company employs about 6,500 people in Panihati. According to Mr. Mukherjee, the business on its part has taken steps and started projects including rainwater harvesting, which has eased the situation a bit.
Located about 20 km from Kolkata on the east bank of the Hooghly River, Panihati has 35 wards and more than half of them are affected by waterlogging during the monsoon. More than a dozen wards in the civic body remain submerged for months, including wards 23, 24, 25, 26 and 31.
Debasish Dutta, a local activist and resident of ward number 23 in Ramchandrapur Sodepur area of Panihati municipality has been running from pillar to post for several years to get the authorities to take notice of the waterlogging issue.
“I have sent several letters and communications to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Chief Minister Suvenda Adhikari and Urban Development Minister Agnimitra Paul, but to no avail. I suffered attacks during the previous regime when I constantly protested and highlighted the issue of waterlogging,” Mr Dutta said.
The activist said his house and the residence of thousands of people in Panihati have been lying submerged for months and there is no one to notice the problem. Many other residents of the area claimed that illegal constructions, encroachment on railway land and lack of any sewage management made the situation worse with each passing monsoon.
Like several other civic bodies of the state, the local councilors of Panihati have resigned and the village is run by an administrator.
Responding to the matter, a senior officer from the Urban Development Department said that a detailed report on the situation of the sewerage system in Panihati was sought from the Panihati Municipality last month. “We are examining the situation. A report is also being prepared. Necessary steps will be taken,” said a senior engineer from the municipality.
Mr. Dutta recently wrote to the West Bengal Chief Minister’s adviser, Subrata Gupta, requesting a meeting to discuss the situation with a group of representatives and traders from Panihati.
“The BJP government wants to revive West Bengal as a destination for industries, however the existing industrial units have to shut down for water extraction and Panihati is a prime example of this civic disorder,” he said.
Published – 14 Sep 2026 09:33 IST