BHUBANESWAR: On Monday, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das announced de-siltation of all the drains and natural water channels of the capital will be completed within the next seven days. After chairing a meeting of the corporators, she said the work would be wrapped up before the onset of monsoon so that flood-prone and low-lying areas of the city do not face deluges experienced in the past.
The ground situation, however, says the task is unlikely to be achieved given the present pace of cleaning. Currently, over 40 per cent of the stormwater channels - or natural drains - await de-siltation, sources in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) point out.
The status of internal drains is worse. De-siltation of internal drains has been completed only in eight out of 67 wards - 3, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 22 and 33. In some wards, the pre-monsoon cleaning of internal drains has remained as low as 14 per cent.
Ward no 30 is one such area where the agency roped in for de-siltation has, so far, been able to free only 4.3 km out of a total 29.8 km internal drain from clogging. In Ward no 44, the de-siltation work has remained around 20 per cent. Sources said, only 3 km out 15 km drain has been de-silted in the locality. Drainage de-siltation in Ward no 21, 36 and 46 is equally low.
Locals in areas including Jagannath Nagar, Laxmi Sagar, Unit-6, Ganga Nagar, Bhimpur, Jaranasahi, Jayadev Vihar and Old Town point at the tardy pace of cleaning work as drains remain choked, triggering fear of flooding.
“Last year, stormed water entered our shop following heavy rain due to clogging of the drain in front of the market complex. The drain is yet to be de-silted properly,” said a trader on Ratha Road in Old Town.
Another resident Prabhat Das said the natural drain which overflows and inundates Ratha road connecting Mausima temple to Lingaraj shrine has also not been de-silted properly this year. “Restoration of a culvert on the drain to check flooding has not been completed yet,” he said.
Residents in Unit-VI say internal drains have been clogged at many places. The ones near Capital Hospital and the NVBDCP office have been choked due to the dumping of garbage and waste. The municipal corporation this year set aside around `3.5 crore towards restoration and de-siltation of natural drains, while a similar amount has also been earmarked for cleaning of internal drains.
An engineer from BMC’s drainage wing pointed out that the civic body divided drainage cleaning and de-siltation under 10 different packages, awarding it to multiple agencies since last year but the move has not been of help.
Mayor Das said agencies have been given a week’s time to clean internal drains while natural stormwater channels will be de-silted by June 25. Action will be taken if deadlines are not met.