Flood water of Daya river has inundated a residential building complex in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11: Multi-storeyed building complexes that have come up or are being built on the city outskirts, especially on the Sundarpada-Jatni Road, are bearing the brunt of floods in the Daya river.

Most of these buildings have come up in violation of the rules set by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the no objection certificate (NOC) norms of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Now, they are taking a pounding as water from the Mahanadi is being channelised through Kathjodi and Daya rivers and hitting them.

For the owners of flats in Hitech and Kalyani Plaza and the upcoming Kalyani Annex, time has come to ponder over their decision. Many are blaming the state-owned housing bodies for the situation as builders have lured people with cost-effective multi-storeyed structures without doing a proper survey on the land and drainage.

Bijay Ransingh of Madhipur said: “This land on the left side of the Bhubaneswar-Jatni Road is known as a flood zone. When we cannot get a healthy paddy harvest from the farmland, how the builders got their permission to build multi-storeyed structures and how residents purchased apartments without any inquiry or survey is to be analysed first. The people should have done some leg work before buying the properties.’’

“There was a time when the builders purchased land at a cost of Rs 500 per one ‘gunth’ (nearly 2,400 square feet) in late 90s, but they sold it at Rs 60,000 or as flats with exuberant price tags. People bought them in a mad rush. Now, the time has come to introspect,’’ said Rashik Patnaik of Botanda, a nearby village.

Though revenue areas beyond Sundarpada were earlier outside BDA’s jurisdiction, all the structures were given permission by the block development officers (BDOs) so there was no technical survey or analysis of the building bylaws by senior revenue officials. BDA sources said more than 15 such structures had come up or received permission from Jatni BDOs to built multi-storeyed structures along the Sundarpada-Jatni Road.

“No longer are BDOs giving permission for multi-storeyed buildings. Those who had received the permission earlier were asked to get their plans reviewed by BDA,” Jatni BDO Ashutosh Samal said this morning.

“Even the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had passed a resolution to ask multi-storeyed structures get NOCs first before getting their plans approved by BDA, but as the area did not come under the corporation’s jurisdiction, the builders took advantage of the situation,’’ said a local resident of Pokhariput, Pitambar Parida, who came to see the flood situation near Sundarpada.

BDA sources also admitted that there would be 100 such cases of NOC violation in the entire city and most of them could be in these fringe areas of municipal and panchayat zones.