Bhubaneswar, July 31: The municipal corporation today decided to improve the city's 10 drainage channels and construct more drains in the city to tackle waterlogging during the monsoon.

The decision comes in wake of intense waterlogging following a brief spell of rain here last week. The civic body has also decided to construct a long drain along the NH-5 to avoid waterlogging.

"The highways authority has been asked to prepare a detailed project report for the drain to be constructed along the 14km long national highway that falls within our area. The state government will fund the project. The work will begin in a month after we get the project report," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

The civic body has also decided to build more drains at various parts of the city.

"The councillors, along with zonal divisional commissioners, will assess their respective areas and come up with proposal for the drain construction. We will go along with the proposal," said the mayor.

Besides, the municipal corporation today received Rs 5 crore from the tourism department for the street light project in the city.

Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda sanctioned the money to the civic body during the monthly corporation meeting today.

According to the plan, the stretch between the airport and Nandankanan will be illuminated.

"There are several major roads in the city that do not have streetlights. This is a failure of the civic body. They should ensure that street lights are installed on these stretches since they become prone to accidents after dark. I live at Jagamara and I need to use the Krishi Vihar Road to get home at night and I don't feel safe," said Pritam Mishra, a corporate employee.

Apart from the street light and drainage issues, the officials today also discussed the new civic headquarters that will come up at Unit-IX.

According to the initial plan, the officials have fixed a tentative budget of Rs 66 crore for the project. The new office building will have a ground and nine other floors.

"The plan is to integrate all major administrative units of the civic body under one roof. The new headquarters will have civic body's office, smart city's office and an intelligent city operation and management centre. We will get an agency to prepare the project report, following which we will start clearing the land for the project," said a civic official.

Sources said that the new building would have dedicated space for various existing and upcoming citizens' welfare projects. It will have a large space citizen's service, dedicated single-window counters for grievance and other issues. It will also have a large meeting hall.