ROURKELA: Intermittent heavy rainfall from Monday night caused the Patanga nullah to flood the culvert at S Balang, disrupting road communication for hours in Bonai sub-division of Sundargarh district on Tuesday.
Villagers said following the heavy rains, storm water from nearby hilly and forested terrains flooded the nullah and submerged the low-height hume pipe culvert, cutting off communication for hours. The S Balang panchayat headquarters remained cut off from Ulundaposh, Bhaluposh, Taldihi, Barghat, Jamjor and other villages till normalcy returned after a few hours with receding of water.
Sources said in the morning, gushing floodwater flowing above the culvert forced villagers and schoolchildren to remain stranded for hours.
President of BJD’s Rourkela organisational district Pradyumna Tripathy said the low-height culvert with hume pipes was constructed by the Bonai block administration several decades ago. There is a long-standing demand for construction of a high-level bridge at the site.
Due to frequent flooding of the culvert, the primary health centre (PHC) at S Balang becomes inaccessible and the villagers of Ulundaposh on the other side of the nullah are affected. Besides, 10 other villages of S Balang and Bhalupani panchayats face difficulties, he said.
Tripathy further informed that over two years back, the Rural Development department had conducted a survey for construction of a high-level bridge with funding from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF). The district administration should expeditiously implement the proposed bridge project to alleviate the sufferings of villagers, he added.
Meanwhile, villagers of Bisra block on Tuesday gathered at the site of a partially-damaged causeway on Bisra-Puruna Bisra road near a railway underpass demanding immediate construction of an elevated road culvert.
Joining the agitating villagers, former MLA of Birmitrapur Shankar Oram said the causeway frequently gets submerged with storm water to disrupt road communication. Strong current of the gushing storm water recently damaged a portion of the causeway, affecting a few thousands villagers of Bisra and seven villages of Manko panchayat.
Later in the day, the junior engineer and other officials of the Rural Development department inspected the site for appropriate action.