Cuttack: The civic body has started positioning de-watering pumps in different areas of the city as part of its management plan to prevent waterlogging conditions during the rains.
Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said on Tuesday the civic body was ready with around 300 pumps for use across the city and, of them, 12 had been placed at permanent pumping stations at spots that are prone to waterlogging.
"The positioning of the portable pumps started on Monday. While around 200 pumps are already in place, the rest will be kept on standby to be pressed into service according to emerging situations," Mohapatra said.
The high-powered diesel pumps have been assigned for low-lying areas prone to waterlogging by overflowing drains. An official in the civic body's engineering division said it had added 143 pumps to its arsenal since 2013 to combat waterlogging and had also set up 12 permanent pumping stations by spending Rs 2 crore in 2015.
The permanent pumping stations have come up at Deer Park, Chahata, Shivajinagar, Satichaura Idgah, Sishu Bhavan, Police Colony, Raja Bagicha, Bisnabara, Matrubhavan, Andarpur, Tingharia, Shyamsundar Math, and Kamalakanta Vidyapith.
Every year, the civic body receives complaints from different areas that the number of pumps used were not adequate. After an analysis of the complaints, it identified around a hundred locations to position pumps of 24HP capacity," the civic official said. Mohapatra said around eight high-powered pumps had been requisitioned from the fire services and the Jica project for locations vulnerable to flooding following heavy rain.
The areas which will be monitored closely for inundation include Bidyadharpur, Kanheipur, Nuabazar, Mahanadi Vihar, Press Colony, Jobra, Sikharpur, Roxy Lane, Khannagar, Badambadi, Rajabagicha Labour Colony, Meria Bazar, Rausapatana, Gamandiha, Kesharpur, Police Colony, Stuartpatana, Kafla, Sidheswar Sahi and others. "Several teams with an engineer each will monitor the situation in all the wards vis-à-vis functioning of the pumps," Mohapatra said.
"Mechanical clearing of silt from main drains will continue even during the monsoon to check and clear stretches where the silt load reappears after excavation," he said.
