Cuttack: The municipal corporation has landed itself in a race against time to make surface water channels across the city rain ready before the onset of monsoon.

The civic body is expected to take timely steps to prevent waterlogging and inundation of homes ahead of the rains by clearing silt from drainage channels. The silt removal operation from main and branch drains is undertaken every April and completed in May.

However, this year, work on nearly 35 per cent of the surface water channels still remains to be completed, sources said.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra on Wednesday said the removal of silt from storm water channels - both branch and main - had been completed in almost all the wards, except a few.

The exercise covers the city's entire drainage system constituting two main storm water channels stretching up to 25km, a 40km network of branch drains and around 95km of tertiary drains.

Sources in the civic body's engineering division said the silt removal work had already covered most part of the main drains, but lagged behind for branch drains with only 65 per cent coverage so far.

"The clearance of silt from the main storm water channels, including the stretch in which reconstruction work has been taken up under the Japan International Cooperation Agency funded project, has been almost completed," Mohapatra said.

"Silt removal from branch drains is under way on a war footing. The work in all the wards will be completed by June 25," he said.

The civic body spends Rs 2 to 3 crore a year to remove silt from the storm water channels.

Badambadi resident Sirish Mohapatra said: "There will be overflowing drains and waterlogging after incessant rain if the silt removal work is sloppy. Much will depend on how the work has been executed."

The main storm water channels have an outflow capacity of 75,000 to 80,000 cusecs per hour. "It is vital to maintain this capacity to prevent water-logging after heavy rain. This is only possible by clearing the silt deposits," an official in the civic body's engineering division said.