BHUBANESWAR: The width of some of the capital city’s major drainage channels needs to be increased by up to 40 metres to combat waterlogging and urban flooding, the draft comprehensive storm water drainage master plan of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has stated.
The plan also places emphasis on strengthening city’s blue-green infrastructure including protection of water bodies, natural drainage corridors and groundwater recharge, apart from non-structural measures such as SCADA-based monitoring, level sensors, flood alarms and early-warning systems to strengthen the city’s flood-management capabilities.
The draft was unveiled at the BMC corporation meeting on Friday. City engineer Prafulla Raito said the draft master plan has been prepared by IIT-Roorkee following the signing of an MoU in February 2025, for development of scientific, integrated and future-ready drainage system for the city. It covers around 256 sq km of BMC area.
“The city has 11 major storm water channels along with its sub-drains and tertiaries. However, the initial plan calls for improving carrying capacity of a number of major drains, suggesting their widening to up to 40 metre against existing 3, 6 or 9 metre,” Raito told TNIE.
He said the draft master plan examines Bhubaneswar as an integrated urban watershed rather than as a collection of individual drainage projects. The integrated approach is intended to prevent situations where increasing drainage capacity at one location could worsen flooding elsewhere in the network.
BMC sources said the plan assessment includes city’s natural drainage channels, primary, secondary and tertiary drains, water bodies, culverts, syphons and outfall systems. It also identifies existing flood hotspots, drainage bottlenecks, inadequate sections and critical outfalls. It looks beyond present day requirements, incorporating projected population growth, urbanisation and future hydro-climatic conditions up to 2050.
A key component of the study was assessment of the Daya river and Gangua nullah outfall system, including carrying capacity, available slope, hydraulic conditions and downstream constraints.
The city engineer said the measures proposed in the master plan would require large-scale land acquisition. The IIT-Roorkee will also propose other feasible alternatives to tackle waterlogging and urban flooding.
BMC officials have already sought Rs 200 crore fund from NDMA for strengthening of drainage system in the city.