Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, Oct. 22: Normal life was paralysed for the second consecutive day as heavy rain lashed the twin cities here today.

While several localities in Cuttack were submerged in overflowing drain water barely 24 hours after the city witnessed a rainfall of 95.4mm, Bhubaneswar witnessed 49.4mm rainfall yesterday.

Today, Cuttack received 41mm rainfall, while Bhubaneswar got 37.2mm rainfall.

The incessant rain seriously affected restoration and resumption of various civic works after the Phailin attack on October 12.

The rainfall is caused by a low pressure over Bay of Bengal near the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“The rain will continue up to October 26. It may even last for a few more days,’’ said Sarat Chandra Sahu, director of Indian Meteorology Department, Bhubaneswar.

Various areas of Cuttack witnessed severe waterlogging, putting residents and commuters into a lot of inconvenience.

“It is very unfortunate that the Cuttack Municipal Corporation is yet to undertake concrete measures to check repeated waterlogging at various localities in the city,” said Narayan Sinha, a resident of Kazi Bazaar.

Sinha said that people of several low-lying areas faced a lot of problems today as they had already cleaned up their houses this morning off the wastewater that had entered their houses last evening.

Cuttack residents alleged that some areas of the city, including Kazi Bazar, Alamchand Bazar, Mehendipur and Rover Street remain waterlogged whenever the city receives rainfall.

But today, areas such as Pithapur, Badambadi, Mission Road, Jhola Sahi, Bangali Sahi, Bhagatpur, Kesharpur, Meria Bazar, Darkhapatna and Sikharpur also remained waterlogged.

The problem of waterlogging has assumed serious proportions as most of the drains have not been desilted before the monsoon, alleged residents of various localities in Cuttack.

“The civic body had conducted a drive for removal of silt from the drains and channels. But, it seems that the drains were not properly desilted,” said Dinesh Sharma, a resident of Pithapur.

Cuttack Municipal Corporation authorities, however, said that adequate steps were taken to clear the accumulated water from various localities by deploying pumps since yesterday.

“The city witnessed more than 95mm of rainfall yesterday, which was the highest in the state. All the officials have been instructed to operate pumps round the clock to prevent waterlogging in the city,” said Cuttack mayor Saumendra Ghose.

Another official of the corporation said that more than 115 pumps have been deployed at various places of Cuttack for immediate discharge of rainwater.

In Bhubaneswar, today’s 37.2mm rainfall caused waterlogging in areas such as Bomikhal, Laxmisagar, Chintamaniswar, Bhimatangi, Soubhagya Nagar, Nayapalli, Behera Sahi, Iskcon temple, Jayadev Vihar, Acharya Vihar and several areas beyond Daya West Canal.

However, the workers of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation today continued their exercise to clean post-Phailin garbage despite the rain. Vice-chairman of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority Vishal Kumar Dev and commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Sanjib Kumar Mishra toured various places to oversee the cleaning operations this morning as part of their post-Phailin review process.

“The sudden downpour has hampered our works. But, we have achieved about 82 to 85 per cent target of cleaning the city after Phailin. The garbage that is still there at some places will be cleared within a few days,’’ said the municipal commissioner.

“In Bhubaneswar, the waterlogging scenarios is not as alarming as that of Cuttack. But, our emergency team is ready with excavators and pumps to face any kind of situation,’’ he added.