Drain de-silting work being carried out at Forest Park in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 19: The municipal corporation is yet to finish de-silting and repairing channels though the southwest monsoon has already set in the state.

As it is, the city experienced 35.2mm rainfall on Tuesday, and the Met office has forecast heavy rain in the next 24 hours that might further impede the drain job.

On May 8, the state government had set the June-end deadline to wind up the de-silting work. But with only 25 per cent of the target achieved, meeting the deadline seems to be a tall order for the authorities.

In the city, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation maintains 300km of small drains, while the public works department maintains 200km of drains along the major roads. While the Bhubaneswar Development Authority looks after nearly 15km of drains in colonies developed by it, the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) maintains nearly 40km drains in three major industrial estates in the city.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: “We are determined to finish the work by June 25. However, if anything remains unfinished, it will be definitely over by the month end.”

He, however, said that this year, emphasis had been given for a greater co-ordination among the works department, water resources and the development authority, so that the drain job was done across all localities in the city. The water resources department will take care 10 natural drainage channels covering nearly a 70-km stretch.

A senior corporation official said: “The natural drainage channels are the primary carrier of rainwater from the city through the Gangua nullah, which ultimately goes to the Daya river. So, if you leave them with the silt and damaged-retaining walls, the rainwater coming through smaller drains cannot get cleared easily. The repair and basin de-silting of the major channels will be on top priority and the water resources department has been asked to finish the task by the month-end.”

City health officer Chandrika Prasad Das said: “We take up the drain cleaning work as an annual exercise. We started it on time, but since this year, the arrival of monsoon remained unpredictable, we are facing some difficulties. However, it will be over before the end of this month.”

On June 16, Acharya Vihar Parishad secretary Bhagabat Prasad Das filed a grievance petition with the corporation for early completion of diversion of the drainage channel No. 4, as the water channel creates a flood-like situation near the locality.

Orissa High Court advocate Prabir Das said: “The civic body authorities should keep a tab on this, as they are ultimately to take the blame for better preparedness for the monsoon.”