Bhubaneswar: Lack of maintenance has restricted the free flow of water through the 10 natural drainage channels in the city, triggering the fear of urban flooding during monsoon.

The channels, which are about 37km in length and cover nearly 103sqkm of the city area, carry wastewater from city households to Gangua nullah or the Daya river.

Every year, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation spends crores of rupees ahead of monsoon for repair and maintenance of the channels, located at Patia, Sainik School, VSS Nagar, Vani Vihar, Lakshmi Sagar, Baragada, Kedargouri, airport, Ghatikia and near Nicco Park. A reality check done by The Telegraph on Thursday revealed that most of the channels are now filled with weeds, making it difficult for the water to flow smoothly.

The situation is worse for the drainage channels near Janpath and Vani Vihar, which not only lack proper embankment but also fall prey to encroachment by slum dwellers. In case of the one near the CRPF area, though the civic body built concrete embankment for the channel, it got damaged in the absence of proper care.

"The bigger drains or channels are essential set-ups that help to avoid flood-like situation in the city. But since the civic body is not properly maintaining the drains, these are falling prey to encroachments. The corporation has also failed to ensure periodic cleaning of the drains," said Nayapalli resident Jatindra Mohanty.

The natural drainage channel No. 4, which is considered to be the bane for the residents of Acharya Vihar especially during monsoon, too, remains in a bad condition since the civic body is yet to construct a box-type drain that they had proposed to do last year.

"We had submitted a revised proposal before the government for construction of box-type drain for the fourth drainage channel. It got the nod now. We will float a tender and begin the work by the end of this month. The projects get delayed because of some flaws in the previous tender document," said a civic body official.

"We have done the de-silting work of the drainage channels as is done ahead of monsoon every year. Our drainage division is preparing a drainage master plan for the city, which includes improvement of drainage channels as well as the new sewerage system. We do not have much drainage problems, but the master plan will help us tackle any situation in near future," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.