Cuttack, Aug. 23: The wait for a drainage system in his locality is over for Subhadrapur resident Kirti Chandra Bisoi.

The 52-year-old government employee said: "In 2014, we had been promised a drainage system in our area. But, nothing tangible has followed till date."

However, like Bisoi, residents of six wards that have been excluded under the integrated sanitation project in the city will now benefit as the Cuttack Municipal Corporation has decided to extend the underground sewerage system to these areas. Almost 50,000 people belonging to Jagatpur, Nimpur, Balikuda, Subhadrapur, Gopalpur, Pratapnagari and Telengapenth will get an underground sewerage system once the project is over.

"We have started a survey to extend the underground network for collection and disposal of waste to six of the 59 wards that had been left out of the project funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica)," municipal commissioner Bikash Chandra Mohapatra told The Telegraph today.

"Once that is done, we will draw up a detailed project report and submit it to the government for approval and decision on financial assistance," Mohapatra said. "The project will be executed through the Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board."

The Jica-funded project has excluded ward Nos. 48, 49, 56, 57, 58 and 59. Mohapatra said: "The six wards would be fully covered with the underground system."

Ward No. 56 councillor Sanjay Kumar Baral said: "The ward does not have a drain. So, the prospect of an underground sewerage system is the local residents' long-standing demand."

The civic body hopes to get funding for the project either under the Centre's Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation sche-me or agencies such as Jica.

Chairman of the civic body's standing committee for sanitation Ranjan Kumar Biswal said: "Municipal areas that had been left out are mostly on the other side of the Mahanadi in the north and the Kathajodi in the south."

Official sources said the survey was expected to come up with details of the length of sewer lines, pumping mains and number of households to be connected in the six wards.

In October 2012, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the integrated sanitation project to build a comprehensive sewerage system for Cuttack.

Official sources said that less than 60 per cent of the sewer network and less than 5km of main drain had been completed till date. Once the project is over, the city will get, for the first time, improved sanitary conditions and water quality in the surrounding rivers alongside the separate drainage and sewerage system.

For a city plagued by poor drainage system and lack of sewers, the project has filled residents with hope that it would fix problems of inundation by overflowing drains and waterlogging during rain.