Cuttack, June 7: The civic body has chalked out an emergency contingency plan to put a check on urban flooding during the monsoon.

The Cuttack Municipal Corporation has decided to deploy as many as 265 motor pumps, including 24 high-power ones, to ensure fast clearance of rainwater through the existing drainage pipes.

According to senior officials, these 24 high-power motor pumps with a discharge rate of 5,000 litres per minute would be used to ensure fast clearance through the existing main stormwater channel No.1. The machine can function continuously for almost 17 hours and consume 5 to 5.5 litres of diesel per hour.

The high-power pumps will come handy in resolving waterlogging conditions even in the case of 100mm of rainfall in the city, official sources said.

The civic body has also come up with a strong mechanism to monitor the functioning of the high power pumps through GPS system. A control room will be set up from where the senior officials can monitor the status of the pumps, whether functional or not, the duration of the machine in operation and the total fuel consumption.

The new mechanism through GPS will enable the senior officials to ensure that all the machines are made operational in case of heavy rain to prevent inundation in low-lying areas.

"We have conducted a test of the machines today and all the motor pumps are in working condition. The high-power machines will be deployed at eight permanent pumping stations, while the remaining will be used in several low-lying areas in all the 59 wards," said Gyana Das, municipal commissioner.

Das said that already the officials of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had been asked to clear all the blockages and de-silt the main storm water channel No. 1 by June 15.

A spot visit by senior officials of the civic body, district administration, sewerage board was also conducted today to examine the status of the construction undertaken by Jica.

Senior officials said that timely removal of silt and other floating materials was highly essential as any kind of blockage in the main stormwater channel will aggravate waterlogging situation in prime locations, including Kanika Chak, Patapole, Meria Bazar, Petyon Sahi, Sutahat, Kesharpur, Bajrakabati road, Samant Sahi and Friends Colony.