BMC fails to tackle flooding in City

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Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has apparently failed in achieving the target of keeping several places in City free from waterlogging even as the monsoon rain continues to lash several parts of the state Monday.
The incessant rain since Sunday evening has deluged several parts of the City causing untold miseries to the citizens.
The entire stretch of the service road near Iskcon temple was inundated by drain water leading to disruptions in traffic along the stretch. More than 20 four-wheelers and auto-rickshaws were seen trapped and seemingly floating in the middle of the flooded road.
Last year, a few hours of heavy rainfall had led to flooding in front of Iskcon temple and several other areas, throwing normal life out of gear. According to a local, lack of proper planning to improve the drainage system near the temple and other places in the City has been causing inundation every year. It is high time the Smart City fixed the problem for the betterment of the citizens, he said.
Piyush Ranjan Rout, a City-based urban planner, said, “Like every year, the rain has caused massive waterlogging in Nayapalli, Rasulgarh, Bomikhal and other areas. Roads look like rivers. The drainage work undertaken by the BMC in these particular areas helped little in addressing the waterlogging situation.”
Meanwhile, there are also reports that the persistent rain has left many low-lying areas including those in Jaydev Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Vani Vihar, Satyanagar, Satya Vihar, Khandagiri, Sahid Nagar, Sashtri Nagar and other places flooded.
Rainwater has also accumulated on the newly-constructed Bomikhal flyover after the rains thanks to faulty planning. The situation will worsen further, if the rainfall continues for another two-three days and substantial measures are not taken to address the issues.
Earlier, the BMC officials had claimed that they had started desilting and cleaning of 10 major natural storm water drains and internal drains in 67 wards.
“Ten to 12 chain-mounted excavators are being used for desilting the drains every day. The number may go up as per requirements later. Around 230 workers have been engaged for desilting and cleaning at places where mechanical cleaning is not possible,” a BMC source had said.
The City has 10 drainage channels stretching nearly 60 km and internal drains of around 560 km. All these channels fall in Gangua nullah, which takes the water to Daya river