BHUBANESWAR : With drainage desiltation work delayed by weeks, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a tough task at hand to clean clogged storm water channels and check waterlogging across the city during monsoon. The civic body has set June 20 deadline to complete the task.
Sources drain desiltation work should have commenced by April-end. However, owing to the elections as well as delay in finalisation of tender, cleaning of drains has been delayed this year. The city has 1,123 km of internal drains along roads in 67 wards of which around 663 km is managed by BMC and 360 km by the R&B division. Idco manages 65 km of internal drains in industrial estates while the length of internal drains under NHAI is 34.43 km. Except for the three wards, drainage desiltation work in rest 64 will be carried out by the private agencies.
However, as per a decision taken by the government last year, BMC will also clean the 360 km drainage stretch falling under the jurisdiction of R&B division. This apart, the civic body is also required to clean 10 major natural drains having a total length of around 77 km. “Drain disiltation has started only a fortnight back and we have set a target to clean the clogged natural drains, internal storm water channels along internal roads and sub-arteries by June 20,” said an official from BMC’s drainage wing.
He, however, admitted that the progress so far has not been even close to 25 per cent. With less than three weeks in hand, the city has already faced severe waterlogging following a heavy spell of rain in May second week under the impact of nor’wester.
Several low-lying areas including parts of Jayadev Vihar, Reddy Sahi, Laxmi Sagar village, Baya Baba Matha basti and Nayapalli Bada Sahi were flooded at midnight leaving locals in a lurch on May 12. The incident prompted municipal commissioner Rajesh Pravakar Patil to convene a meeting where officials concerned of the drainage wing were asked to work out immediate plans for cleaning drains and covering open ones.
A senior official from the drainage wing said, as agencies have expedited work, they hope the desiltation task will be completed within the fixed timeline.