Bhubaneswar, Sept. 2: Torrential rain that started last evening and continued till early this morning has left the municipal corporation red faced with several areas of the city reeling from severe waterlogging.

Rasulgarh, Bomikhal, Old Town, Acharya Vihar, GGP Colony, Nayapalli, parts of the National Highway 5 near the Iskon temple, Fire Station Square and few more areas remained worst affected, where people had to made their way through knee-dip water.

'One good spell of rain and the situation goes beyond control. It is not the first time that the city is witnessing such waterlogging. It had happened a number of times in the past two months. It seems that the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is learning nothing from their past mistake,' said Nayapalli resident Sangita Panda.

Bomikhal resident Ganesh Acharya said the recent rain in Mumbai and the situation that followed was quite understood, but it should not happen in a city such as Bhubaneswar since it is in the process of making. 'Bhubaneswar is one of the well-planned cities of the country. It should not face such a situation,' said Acharya.

To deal with waterlogging, the corporation has put up nine pumps on standby, which were used at Bomikhal and Rasulgarh today to drain out the rainwater. 'We cleared the water at Bomikhal and Rasulgarh since they got severely affected today. Besides, we cleared the sludge from drains at Old Town and Bhimtangi to ensure smooth flow of water. The situation got normal by noon today,' said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

According to the local meteorological centre's prediction, the citizens are yet to face more such similar situations at least till September 5, as the weathermen say a trough remains active over the state and the rain will be triggered accordingly till next Tuesday.

'A north-south trough over northeast Bihar and neighbourhood to the west central Bay of Bengal is contributing to the rainfall activity in the coastal belt of the state. Besides, the southwest monsoon remained vigorous over the state, which is adding more to the prevailing weather condition. The rain will continue till September 5 and later gets normal,' said Met director Sarat Chandra Sahu.

The forecast has brought the civic body officials on toes. 'We are cleaning the natural drainage channels and the peripheral drains periodically to ensure smooth flow of rainwater. We have also started constructing a drain along both sides of the National Highway to overcome the problem,' said the mayor.

According the daily weather bulletin issued by the local meteorological centre here today, the city received 74.3mm rain in the past 24 hours. Due to the rain, the maximum and minimum temperatures also went down to 28.5 degrees Celsius and 23.2 degrees Celsius, respectively.