Post Rath Yatra, Puri streets continue to remain waterlogged

Puri: The whole of Puri was flooded with rain water during Rath Yatra. But for the residents of Matitota and Sujat Nagar here, the situation has remained unchanged over the past one and half months as these areas have been grappling with waist-deep water ever since the season of rainfall started.

The local residents have blamed the authorities for drainage problems citing the newly constructed National Highway along the area as the major reason of water-logging.

“It's been two months that our house is surrounded with water. Nothing has been done so far to dewater the locality. They have brought the pumps but are not using them,” alleged a local.

Accepting the fact, the Municipality members stated that despite continuous pumping, the streets are getting waterlogged due to heavy rainfall.

City Municipality chairperson Jayanta Sarangi said, “Water in the streets could not be channelled to nearby water body because of the construction of the NH. We have already spent lakhs to dewater the locality. Sometimes we got water pumps from the fire brigade and a few times we brought pumps on rent. But again after spells of rain, our efforts go futile."

Sources further claimed that the local Municipality has also written a letter to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) urging them to construct a Road Under Bridge (RUB) on the NH to solve the issues of water-logging.