A waterlogged street near Moinul Haq Stadium at Rajendra Nagar in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Sept. 20: First the rain, then a deluge of excuses.

The authorities feed residents a never-ending list of excuses every time the city gets water-logged. It is either the topography of the city, age-old drainage network, incomplete rainwater discharge projects and so on.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) itself claims that if it rains around 90mm in two hours — like last night — lakhs of residents in low-lying areas of eastern Patna, like Rajendra Nagar and Kankerbagh, would face problems as houses and streets would get inundated for at least 36 hours.

“The excess rain-water would be flushed out from most areas in Rajendra Nagar and Kankerbagh by Sunday morning. We have deployed 13 portable pumps in Kankerbagh and five in New Capital circle,” said a senior PMC official.

This weekend Patna saw a rerun last month’s water-logging when it rained 210mm in just nine hours on August 14, breaking the August 30, 1997, record of 205mm rain. Last month, the city received another 102mm rain on August 15 and 65mm on August 16.

The failure of the state machinery, including PMC, to take corrective steps worsened flooding. Not just eastern Patna, other neighbourhoods were also waterlogged. The condition improved considerably in central town areas by Saturday evening but eastern Patna residents continued to wade through waist-deep water.

Vehicles stuck in the water and people pushing them were seen in Rajendra Nagar. “Water has gushed into the ground floor of my building, so residents of that flat are staying in my first floor flat since last night. The clutch of my bike got damaged when I tried to start the vehicle. It seemed like the water had receded by an inch or two in the morning, but has been stagnant all day,” said Naveen Kumar of Rajendra Number road number- 2 area.

The civic body blamed Rajendra Nagar’s saucer-shape topography. “As Rajendra Nagar is like a saucer, water from far-off places settles there. Only long-term solutions like strengthening existing drains and creating new sump houses can help discharge rainwater. Still, we have learnt a lesson from the mid-August deluge and the excess water would be flushed out earlier this time,” said the PMC official.

Heavy rainfall alert

The Met department on Saturday warned of heavy rain at isolated places in 11 districts of northeast Bihar over the next 48 hours. “A low-pressure area originating from coastal Odisha has turned into a depression and was moving northward towards the Jharkhand-Bengal border. This could bring heavy rain at isolated places in Purnea, Katihar and Kishanganj,” Patna Meteorological Centre director Ashish Sen said.