Residents wade through the waterlogged Kalyan Plaza-I complex near Sundarpada on the city outskirts. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 7: Officials of the Odisha Fire Services today rescued two elderly persons from an apartment complex on the city outskirts along Sundarpada-Jatni Road.

At the moment, around 500 people in the marooned apartment, which has no power supply, are yet to be evacuated.

Assistant city fire officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi said: “The team rescued Sachidananda Panda, 82, a patient suffering from filariasis, and his wife Pramila Panda, 72, who is suffering from cancer. Later, the rescuers hospitalised them.”

On receiving distress phone calls from the family members, fire officials rescued them. “We also requested other residents to come out, but they were not willing as they fear that if left empty thieves may loot their belongings from the complex,” said a fire service official.

Two days ago, Sushanta Kumar Das, 55, saw floodwaters coming through the paddy fields. But, he never imagined that it might increase and maroon the entire complex of Kalyan Plaza-I.

“Within two days the water level increased considerably, and today, it almost entered the basement floor. As our apartment block has no basement parking and the portion consists of residential area, the people staying in those flats are at the receiving end,” said Das.

Floodwaters from the Mahanadi entered Sundarpada through the Daya river.

While the Kuakhai river is a branch of the Mahanadi, it branches out on the city outskirts as the Daya and the Bhargavi. The residents staying in Kalyan Plaza-I, II, Subhadra, Sky, Hitech Annex and Sibani apartment complexes are reeling from flood. “While there are 279 apartments in Kalyan Plaza-I and 310 in Kalyan Plaza-II, only a few apartments in Subhadra are in occupation and workers are staying in the other two,” said a resident of Kantilo, a village on the city outskirts.

“Today, the water was waist deep, but we could manage to come out,” said Kalyan Plaza-I resident Mustaq Alam.

Local resident Madan Pradhan said: “The low-lying areas on the left side of the Sundarpada-Jatni Road were earlier used as paddy fields. There was also a channel, which was blocked by several apartments. The floodwater, therefore, now enters the area after breaches take place on the Daya river embankment. The water cannot recede. The people should have checked the facts before buying their houses.”

Das, a flat owner in Kalyan Plaza-I, said: “When the real estate developer agents had arranged our visits to the sites, there was no reference of the flood zone. Now, we cannot sell the property and go back.”

Enforcement officer of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority Debaprasad Dash said: “Most of the houses along the Sundarpada-Jatni Road were constructed with the permission from the panchyats or block development officers. Though the area has been included within the development authority’s limits, we cannot do anything as the matter is now under judicial scrutiny.”

Dash, however, said people should have done enough cross-checking before investing their lifetime savings in apartments as there are many in the area without proper approach roads and other basic amenities.