If heavy rains inundated several areas in Cuttack on Monday, the situation on Tuesday was no better.
With low pressure-induced heavy rains lashing the Millennium City, residents of low-lying areas are having a harrowing time with rain water entering their houses.
About 188 water pumps installed in various areas of the city by the civic body to ease water-logging has come as a cropper as the drains remained choked. The flow of rain water was blocked causing unprecedented deluge in areas such as Meria Bazaar, Friends Colony, Professorpara, Gamhadia, Pata Pola, Suta Haat, Badambadi, Badambadi Labour Colony, Mahanadi Vihar, Saanta Sahi, Rausapatna, Roxi Lane, Mahatab Road and Tulasipur Police colony.
Locals said as the civic body did not take up desilting work of drains properly during summer, Cuttack witnessed deluge both on Monday and Tuesday.
“Our area gets water-logged even with a splash of rain. We have not been able to step out of our house since Monday night. Every year, the civic body claims that adequate measures have been taken to fix the problem, but we face the same situation every time it rains,” said K C Pradhan, a resident of Friends Colony.
On Monday, Cuttack received more than 80 mm rainfall and many low-lying areas got water-logged due to continuous downpour.
Roads and low-lying areas witnessed knee-deep to waist-deep water-logging paralysing normal life.
Mayor Saumendra Kumar Ghosh said rain water on Monday was not completely drained out and the continuous downpour on Tuesday added to people’s woes.
For overcoming the water-logging problem, an ambitious project of `757.44 crore integrated sanitation was floated by the State Government under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)- funded project. It aimed at improving the drainage and sewer system of the city.
However, no major work has been initiated under this till now. The Mayor added that construction work of the project will start only after the rains subside.
Sources in the Met department said the showers were triggered by a well-marked low pressure close to North Tamil Nadu and South Andhra Pradesh coast. Under its influence, heavy to very heavy rainfall may occur at one or two places over south Odisha during the next 24 hours.