Waterlogging in Twin City: Mayors of Cuttack, Bhubaneswar say efforts on to fix issues

The issue of acute waterlogging and delay in the clearance of accumulated water from several localities following heavy rainfall in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar has sparked resentment among residents. As problems cropped up in the fast discharge of water from several localities, the residents have blamed Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for such a situation.

It is pertinent to mention here that rain and drain water entered the houses of people living in several localities in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar yesterday and it is yet to be cleared even after 12 hours today.

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BMC Mayor Sulochana Das, “Bhubaneswar received around 259.2 mm of rainfall yesterday. The carrying capacity of drains exceeded for which water entered the houses of people. We had evacuated people from low-lying areas from Rajib Nagar and other parts of the city.”

According to Das, it was a disaster and many people alleged why drain widening work was not taken up during summer.

“We want to say that some people encroached on drains and there is a stay order in some cases for which we are not able to clear the encroachments. We are also trying to convince people and paying more for acquiring land,” Das added.

However, the Bhubaneswar Mayor’s statement has not gone with local residents.

“Why Mayor and BMC are trying to escape by saying that there is a stay order? The engineers should try to come up with alternative measures to check such issues,” said a local resident.

Apart from Bhubaneswar, people in several low-lying pockets in Cuttack also faced problems due to waterlogging.

When contacted, Cuttack Mayor Subhash Singh said, “There is problem in Jhola Sahi, Meria Bazar and other parts up to Gamhadia. We have been successful in ensuring discharge of rainwater. However, due to ongoing box drain construction work, there are some issues in fast clearance of water.”

Singh informed that CMC has put into use around 250 pumps of its own and other 20 heavy duty pumps to flush out water from various localities in the city.