Several neighbourhoods in western Patna continued to resemble the waterways of Venice on Thursday though the city did not get significant rainfall in the past two days.

Residents had to wade through ankle-deep water in loca-lities such as Priyadarshini Nagar, RPS Mor, Saguna Mor, Gola Road, Khagaul and Danapur among others.

Unplanned development has been the underlying cause behind the prolonged waterlogging menace in the areas.

Despite being the hub of real estate activities over the past two decades, with hundreds of buildings mushrooming beyond the Digha-Danapur canal, the authorities are yet to develop a proper sewerage and drainage network. Most colonies in that side of the city are still connected by kutchha (unmetalled) roads.

"The street in our colony is inundated with rainwater for the past five days and the local body has made absolutely no effort to drain it out. The situation becomes riskier after sunset thanks to non-existent streetlights and pot-holed roads," said Subodh Kumar, a resident of Priyadarshni Nagar.

The development of areas beyond the Digha-Danapur canal picked up mainly from the late 1990s.

Prior to that, majority of these areas was barren land and remained waterlogged throughout the year.

Realtors attributed the unplanned urban development in this part of the city to the lack of government regulation. "Urbanisation is a natural process and it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that planned development takes place in the city. It is the failure of successive state governments over the past two decades that they could not ensure development of basic civic infrastructure such as drainage and sewerage structure in such residential areas. Realtors cannot be blamed for unplanned development if the authorities failed to construct drains and roads before houses got built," said Sachin Chandra, the former state president of Builders' Association of India.

Majority of areas in western Patna fall under Danapur Nizamat municipal council. There are a total of 40 wards with a population of around 1.6 lakh (2011 census) in Danapur muncipal council.

Elected representatives attributed unplanned development to the prolonged waterlogging.

"The area on both flanks of Gola Road was agriculture land, which stood out like islands during monsoon. In the absence of master plan, the entire area developed without basic infrastructure, including roads and drainage network. People constructed houses even without the approval of maps. In any developed city, construction activities are allowed only after roads and drainage network are ready but such a practice was not followed in case of western Patna," said Danapur Nizamat municipal council deputy mayor Raj Kishor Yadav.

Citing the example of lack of drainage network, Yadav said: "Lack of drains in this part of the city are common, which lead to prolonged waterlogging."