Cuttack faces waterlogging due to incessant rains

CUTTACK: The incessant rains on Wednesday exposed the tall claims of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) about its preparedness to deal with water logging problem.
In just few spells of rain the low-lying areas across the Millennium city were waterlogged. Many interior parts and low lying areas like OMP Square, Idgah padia, Thoria Sahi, Ganga Mandir Mansinghpatna, Stewartpatna, Professorpara, Gamhadia, Roxy lane, Rover’s street, Mehendipur, Meria Bazaar, Pattapole, Badambadi, Sikharpur, Gandarpur were flooded with rainwater.
Situation was so worse that rain water along with drain water gushed into the houses of the people residing in the low lying areas.People were seen struggling hard to deal with the situation.“Since morning all my family members are busy flushing out drain water from our house. The entire locality is submerged,” said Ashutosh Das, a resident of Roxy lane.
Looking at the situation, Cuttack collector Sushant Mohapatra convened an emergency meeting of all stakeholders to review the water logging problem in the city and directed officials to take immediate measures to resolve the problem.
Traffic flow in busy stretches in Badambadi and Madhupatna were also affected as commuters faced tough time in negotiating the water logged roads. “The Badambadi main road has virtually turned into a pond. It’s difficult to drive on the stretch,” said Manoj Das, a commuter.
While citizens have blamed CMC’s negligence for the water logging situation the civic body authorities have attributed the problem to the ongoing drainage and sewerage overhauling project.
“Drains across the city are choked with garbage and desilting has not been done properly as a result of which rain water is not flowing properly. CMC is well-aware about Cuttack’s perennial water logging problem but nothing has been done to deal with the situation,” said Debendra Das, a retired government employee.
However, CMC officials have claimed that under the ongoing drainage and sewerage overhauling project drain construction work is being carried out at various places in the city due to which the drains have got blocked.
“At least 140 motor pumps, including high power pumps, have been deployed to drain out the rain water from low-lying areas across the city. Our officials are continuously monitoring the situation. Water will recede from majority of the area by night,” said CMC commissioner, Bikash Mohapatra.