Rain brings Twin City Cuttack, Bhubaneswar to their knees; residents struggle

The state capital has hit by heavy downpours on Monday leading to water logging and rainwater entering houses in several areas like VIP Colony, Forest Park New Forest Colony and Soubhagya Nagar areas.  

After a few hours of downpours on Monday, normal life was thrown out of gear, and traffic on different stretches came to a halt. 

Thousands of residents of VIP Colony, Forest Park New Forest Colony and Soubhagya Nagar areas were seen struggling with the water logging issues even today. Knee-deep water was seen on roads as well as inside houses. Some were seen venting their ire at the government and civic body authorities. 

“The rainwater has entered our house and, moreover, there is no electricity as well.  I would like to bring the attention of the Chief Minister that if the situation has come to such a pass in the town area what would be the situation in areas on the outskirts of the city,” rued a female resident.  

Going to share her harrowing experience, another female resident said, “Rainwater has entered our house. This problem recurs every year. In the rainy season, we never keep things on the floor.”

A male resident of Forest Park blamed the lack of a proper drainage system for the present situation. “The area we are living is surrounded by roads with no drains. And as the heights of the surrounding areas have been raised, rainwater accumulates in our area and subsequently enters our houses.”

Similarly, the situation at Aiginia was no better as well. Here, the fire personnel had to rescue people from their houses after rainwater entered and stood three to five feet high. Relief materials were distributed in the locality.

The same situation was also reported from Cuttack. Residents of several low-lying areas including Badambadi, Meria Bazar, and Patapolla are struggling as drain water entered their houses.

“Yesterday, Bhubaneswar received about 200mm rainfall. There are ten big drains in the BMC area and all the drains were overflowing. Earlier, the BMC had cleaned them twice. Yesterday they were overflowing because they received an excess amount of water. The low-lying areas reported water logging issues,” said BMC Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange. 

“What we observed is that the excess water reduced within half-an-hour after the rain stopped. But the water is still there in low-lying areas. We have engaged BMC and fire department pumps there and we are still working. We have already identified some vulnerable points and are working accordingly,” he added.