Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started desilting and cleaning the 10 major natural storm water drains and internal drains in its 67 wards.
The BMC, which is planning to complete desilting before the onset of monsoon, will engage 25 contractors and three sanitation agencies. As per preliminary reports of the India Meteorological Department, monsoon might arrive in the state towards the end of the second or early third week of June.
Meanwhile, senior officials visited major storm water drains and the Gangua Nullah to assess the situation. The BMC’s Drainage Division has taken the initiative to clean internal drains in the 10 wards managed by the civic body.
“Ten to 12 chain-mounted excavators are being used daily for the desilting work. 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 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.
While Drainage Channel No: 1 starts from Forest Lake in Chandrasekharpur and meets Gangua Nullah after 5.7 km, Drainage Channel No: 2 starts from a culvert near Sainik School Road, flows 0.85 km and joins Drainage Channel No: 3 near the railway bridge in VSS Nagar.
Drainage Channel No: 3 starts from Gajapati Nagar in front of Sainik School and meets Gangua Nullah after a distance of 4.22 km.
Drainage Channel No: 4 starts from Ekamra Kanan Lake and opens into Gangua after 7.5 km. Drainage Channel No: 5 originates from the culvert in front of Gurudwara Singh Sabha on Janpath and joins Gangua after 3.54 km.
Drainage Channel No: 6 originates from Ashok Nagar on Janpath and meets Gangua after 3.5 km. Likewise, Channel No: 7 begins from a culvert near Banadurga Temple near Ganganagar and opens into Gangua after 5.45 km.
Drainage Channel No: 8 starts from OUAT near Bharatpur Reserve Forest and flows 5.36 km before joining Drainage Channel No: 9 at Panchasakha Nagar.
The longest drainage channel, Channel No: 9, flows 15.5 km before meeting Gangua on the city’s outskirts.
Drainage Channel No: 10, which originates from a small lake near Mumtaz High School in Nayapalli, flows 7.37 km before joining Gangua.