Bhubaneswar: Top officials of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) blamed the unscientific widening of the highway by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for the flash floods near the city’s ISKCON temple.
A normal rainfall Saturday created a flood like situation on the NH-16 near the temple. Experts said the NHAI had ignored storm water management while raising the NH.
“I discussed this with the Mayor and engineers. The problem with the ISKCON area is that there is no channel for storm water. NHAI widened the road ignoring storm water management. With no drains the water gets accumulated on both sides of the NH,” said Works department former secretary Nandanandan Das.
In fact, urban planners pointed out that the situation is the same in many areas of the city. “We have totally ignored storm water management. That’s why there is water logging at Acharya Vihar, Laxmi Sagar and Rasulgarh. NHAI officials took care of the water-logging on the flyover but ignored the highway. So we have to come up with a better storm water management system,” said urban planner Piyush Ranjan Rout.
Significantly, BMC had discussed this issue with NHAI many times and requested it to construct a channel from ISKCON Temple area to Acharya Vihar Square. However, NHAI ignored the proposal.
“We had discussed the issue with NHAI. The Chief Secretary also attended the meeting. Initially, they sought some time. But, later they ignored our request. However, we are planning to provide drainage,” said a top BMC official.
Meanwhile, NHAI officials blamed unscientific city planning for this flooding. “The city is facing water logging at many places. Planners ignored storm water management and NHAI cannot be blamed,” said an NHAI official requesting anonymity.
The officials’ blame game has affected commuters. “It doesn’t matter who is responsible. If an hour of rain brings the city under water how can we say it is a smart city? We are not even able to identify potholes and driving has become difficult,” said Santosh Kumar Mallick, a resident near ISKCON.
Experts said the situation is manageable. “The city has 10 drainage channels. So the issue can be easily solved by constructing a channel from the waterlogged area to the nearest drain,” added Das.
BMC has so far identified 26 locations which are prone to water-logging. Experts suggested that BMC should come up with a smart strategy for addressing water-logging issues in the capital. PNN