CMC commissioner Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra checks removal of silt from a water channel in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, June 5: The engineering division of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has been told to pull up their socks and accord top priority to prevent shoddy silt removal by contractors from surface water channels to make the city rain ready.

The directive came yesterday from municipal commissioner Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra after detection of sub-standard excavation of silt on the stretch of a major surface drain near the collector’s official residence during an on-the-spot inspection by him.

There were complaints of sloppy silt removal work by contractors.

Mohapatra directed the engineers of the corporation to check excavation of silt with the help of monitoring committees constituted for the purpose and clean the stretches of main drains where work was found to be unsatisfactory.

“The engineering division has been asked to withhold payment of bills of concerned contractors wherever slipshod removal of silt is detected,” the commissioner told The Telegraph.

The annual silt removal operation is taken up to prevent waterlogging and inundation of homes by overflowing drains following heavy rain.

Usually, the pre-monsoon desiltation works start in the first week of April and is complete by first week of May. But this year, desiltation has been completed in less than 30 per cent of the city’s surface water channels by the first week of June. The municipal commissioner, however, said that they were doing their best to complete the works at the earliest.

“Silt removal work from all main drains and branch drains will be completed before the onset of monsoon. The work has been targeted to be completed by June 10,” the commissioner said.

The desiltation exercise covers the entire drainage system, comprising two main storm water channels stretching up to 25km, a network of 29km of branch drains and 72km of tertiary drains with surface water channels measuring up to 660 km.

But the delay in removing the silt loads left on the roadsides following excavation from the drains has already raised an alarm. “The silt is left on the roadsides for days and this is causing serious inconvenience to commuters. Besides, the excavated silt will find their way back to the drain in the event of even a drizzle,” said Satyajit Roy, a resident of Bidanasi.

The corporation’s engineer Umakanta Gadanayak said: “Monitoring committees are taking steps to check and clean the stretches of main drains and branch drains where silt load reappear after excavation.”

In its 2013-14 budget, the corporation had allocated Rs two crore for removal of silt from the main and branch storm water channels.

An official of the corporation said about 250 encroachments had been identified along the two main storm water channels of the city. An eviction operation was launched on May 21 to clear these encroachments to facilitate use of excavators during silt removal operations. Over 65 encroachments in the form of temporary shops, thatched huts and religious structures have already been cleared.