File picture of people stranded at their homes due to waterlogging at their area in Cuttack

Cuttack, June 19: The municipal corporation will press into service 267 pumps to check possible waterlogging in various parts of the city this monsoon.

“These high-power diesel pumps have been earmarked for low-lying areas and locations prone to inundation by overflowing drains. Several of them have been installed permanently. The rest are portable and in the process of being positioned in the allocated areas,” commissioner of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation Gyanaranjan Das told The Telegraph today.

“Besides, as part of our rain preparedness, we have already removed silt from almost all the major surface water channels to maintain full outflow capacity,” Das said.

The annual silt removal operation is taken up to maintain the outflow capacity and prevent waterlogging and inundation of homes by overflowing drains after heavy rain. The main storm water channels in the city have an outflow capacity of 75,000 cusecs per hour.

The civic body spends over Rs 1 crore a year to remove silt from the main storm water channels and branch storm water channel.

The exercise covers the entire drainage system consisting of two main storm water channels stretching up to 25km, a network of 29km of branch drains and 72km of tertiary drains with surface water channels measuring up to 660km.

Das said the engineering division had been directed to keep the pumps ready for draining rainwater. Several squads, with one engineer for each, have been assigned to monitor the situation at all the 59 wards and functioning of the pumps.

The areas that are being kept under close watch for waterlogging and inundation by overflowing drains include Bidyadharpur, Kanheipur, Nuabazar, Mahanadi Vihar, Press Colony, Jobra, Sikharpur, Roxy Lane, Khannagar, Badambadi, Rajabagicha labour colony, Meria Bazar, Rousapatna, Gamandia, Kesharpur, Police Colony, Stuartpatna, Kafla and Sideheswar Sahi areas and Tulsipur (Tanla Sahi and Bauri Sahi).

Motor pumps ready for use to drain out water in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

“Waterlogging following incessant rain in several parts of the city is still not a thing of the past,” said Badambadi resident Prafulla Mohanty, 42. “In many places, waterlogging due to overflowing drains following rain are caused by shoddy removal of silt,” said Gamandia resident Pravas Parida, 55.

The annual silt removal operation assumes significance as lack of required slope in the main surface water channels results in a faster process of silt deposition than clearance by normal flow of water through the drainage system. Besides, indiscriminate disposal of solid waste by the people adds to the silt load. Consequently, the outflow capacity in the city is reduced by more than 50 per cent.

Civic officials claimed widening and deepening of tertiary drains, relocation, reconstruction and renovation of culverts on branch drains had resolved the waterlogging problem in several parts of the city to a large extent.

The completion of the Japan International Co-operation Agency-assisted sewerage and drainage project is expected to fix the perennial problem of waterlogging in the city, they said.