Water entered hundreds of houses in different localities of the capital city following an hour-long heavy downpour on Tuesday morning.
Such was the intensity of rainfall people could not come out of their houses and in low-lying areas rainwater took at least four hours to recede. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had to use motor pumps to clear water-logging at several places.
“Within one hour in the morning it rained about 64.7 mm. Later in the day the upper cyclonic circulation over the State started weakening for which there was improvement in the situation,” said S. C. Sahu, director of meteorological centre, Bhubaneswar.
People remained water-locked for few hours in areas such as Acharya Vihar, Paik Nagar, Satabdi Nagar and Bargada Brit Colony. Water spilled over from half-constructed sewerage lines on Tuesday. “We woke up in the morning to witness heavy-shower that made the Acharya Vihar area look like a floodwater-submerged zone. It was really difficult to go out of house while we all concentrated how to prevent rainwater from entering houses,” said Sandhya Mohanty, a resident of Acharya Vihar.
Similar was the situation in Bargada Brit Colony. Rainwater mixed with filthy drain water entered most of the houses. “Since morning we have not got an opportunity to sit down for a while.
There was water all over my house. My furniture and other household articles were drenched in the water,” said Jeevan Das, a local of Baragada Brit Colony. Bhubaneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena admitted about water-logging, but said water receded immediately.
“We have empanelled contractors. They have been divided into four groups who would work on desilting of drains on war-footing during next week.
Moreover, once work of nine out of 10 major drains of the city gets completed, people will see no waterlogging,” Mr. Jena said.
When asked why desilting work was not taken up before monsoon, he said BMC had floated tender, but no contractor had participated.
