Some low-lying areas of eastern Patna remained inundated on Sunday, two days after the downpour on Friday night.

The Rajendra Nagar and Lohanipur residents found themselves helpless with knee-high water in several houses for the second consecutive day. Kankerbagh residents, however, heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday after water receded from the streets. The Telegraph checks out the status of different areas where rain triggered chaos for the second time over the past one month:

Drowning streets

Most of the places in Rajendra Nagar, including Moinul Haque Stadium, and Rajendra Nagar road No. 1,2, 3 and 16, remained under 2’ to 4’ of rainwater. The road from the Premchand Rangshala roundabout to the McDowell roundabout was heavily waterlogged. People had to face a lot of difficulties in bringing their patients to Magadh hospital on Sunday as well.

“The water on the streets is receding, but at a slow pace because of faulty drainage system,” said Paras Nath, a shopkeeper on Rajendra Nagar main road.

Suffering over

The accumulated rainwater was drained out from most of the neighbourhoods in Kankerbagh except parts of Housing Board Colony by Sunday evening. Being a low-lying area of the city, Kankerbagh has a history of waterlogging. The Kankerbagh drainage project was supposed to solve the problem of the area but there has been no progress on this front in the past couple of years.

Wade to bed

Lohanipur, Congress Maidan and the roads surrounding them were under knee-high water on Sunday evening. Residents, including elderly women and children, had to wade through the accumulated water for commuting.

“The water is being drained out very slowly. Despite such horrible conditions, no official from Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has paid a visit here,” said Prakash Kumar, a resident of the Congress Maidan Road area.

Under water

Leave apart Kankerbagh and Rajendra Nagar in eastern Patna, where the civic body frequently passes the waterlogging blame to the low-lying topography, SP Verma Road in downtown Patna was under ankle-deep rainwater on Sunday.

Sources claimed that Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation was given funds last year to overhaul the existing drainage pipeline but no work has started till date.

Civic chinks

The severe waterlogging in Rajendra Nagar and other areas till Sunday evening showcased the utter failure of PMC in abiding by its earlier claim of draining out the excess rainwater by Sunday morning.

The civic body officials claimed on Sunday that water would be flushed out from most of the areas in Rajendra Nagar by Monday evening. “The water level has gone down by a foot in most areas in Rajendra Nagar over the past 24 hours and it would plunge by another two to three feet over the next 24 hours. Thus, we expect the areas like Road No. 6, McDowell Roundabout, Stadium Road and Saidpur Road to be free of water by Monday evening. The water would be flushed out from the lowest areas, including Road No. 1 and 2, by Tuesday evening,” said a senior official of PMC.

On the delay in flushing out the accumulated water, the PMC official said: “In case of severe waterlogging conditions, slow release of water on the day after the downpour is a common phenomenon. The water drains out comparatively faster on the second day, and even faster thereafter.”