A CONTRACT will be awarded for a £6m flood management infrastructure in Glasgow’s east end this week.

Glasgow City Council looks set to give the contract to RJ McLeod (Contractors) Ltd at the Contracts and Property Committee on Thursday.

The Cardowan Surface Water Management Plan will focus in the city’s east end in the Blairtumnock and Westerwood area as well as Cranhill and Ruchazie.

It is part of the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership (MGSDP), a £46m programme of infrastructure to improve drainage across the city.

Councillor Frank Docherty, committee member and ward councillor for East Centre welcomed the progress.

He said: “This project is absolutely brilliant news for the east end of Glasgow in terms of regeneration and improving our economy.

“There was a time in the not too distant past when we didn’t even have a sewer map of Glasgow – and now we know where everything is and having this substantial new drainage infrastructure on the way.”

The MGSDP is a partnership between Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Water, Network Rail and other local authorities and public bodies.

It will reduce flooding risk for more than 7,000 homes, 18 miles worth of roads and eventually have a drainage capacity of 4,747 litres per second.

It is expected to make room for more than 22,000 new houses in the area.

There is a wider goal to increase sustainable economic growth across the city.

It is will do this by removing drainage constraints to regeneration, including the facilitation of the regeneration of vacant and derelict land, and increasing the wealth of the city through reducing the negative impact of flooding.

“This project will create a new regional surface water system, remove surface water from the combined sewer system and provide capacity for new development whilst creating green corridors leading up to the 7 Lochs Wetland Park,” the committee report states.

Much of Glasgow’s waste water sewers have remain unchanged since Victorian times and only recently did authorities establish a working map of the sewer system, accoring to Mr Docherty.

He added: “The MGSDP is a great project for the whole city and as long as they do a professional job it will benefit the East End of Glasgow.”

RJ McLeod declined an opportunity to comment.