Bhubaneswar: The civic body is working overtime to avoid recurrence of waterlogging incidents along the national highway, but not carrying out de-silting of drains has exposed other low-lying areas to the threat of floods.
"At the expense of other low-lying areas, the authorities are working hard to save the highway from waterlogging. All areas should be looked after without bias," said Rasulgarh resident Jitendra Mohanta.
The situation has also left residents of areas where underground cable project is going on worried. The work has damaged the parallel drain system in various parts of the city, including Janpath, Bidyut Marg and the stretch between Ram Mandir and Housing Board Square.
Urban planners say in case of incessant rain, the pits created to lay the cables will overflow with rainwater and flood nearby low-lying areas since storm water drains have been damaged in several areas.
"Such project should not be taken up during monsoon. Since they are laying high-tension cables along the drains, it will create a lot of problem in discharging rainwater during a heavy downpour," said urban planner Pratyush Ojha.
After the recent waterlogging along the highway near Iskcon Temple, the civic bosses have pulled out all stops to avert a recurrence in view of the Met department's heavy rain forecast beginning Friday.
"The authorities have planned to build box-type drains in our area to divert the water and save us from waterlogging. But, even de-silting of drains has not been done," said resident of low-lying Acharya Vihar Nityananda Mishra.
The civic body has identified low-lying areas, such as Acharya Vihar, Nayapalli, GGP Colony, parts of Rasulgarh, Unit-I, Unit-II, Old Town and Palasuni, which have been put on priority list for taking steps to avoid waterlogging.
Sources, however, said that the civic body was yet to complete de-silting of drains.
"We have put our drainage division on the alert and they are conducting periodic inspection of the drains. The drain de-silting work is almost done and it is not at all true that we are focusing only on the highway. We are ready to tackle any kind of situation," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
