The storm water channel No. 1 in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, March 9: Inundation fear haunts people of several low-lying areas as the civic body is yet to complete necessary groundwork to remove silt from major drainage channels.

Though the Cuttack Municipal Corporation had invited tenders for de-silting operations, the contractors’ association has decided not to take part in the bids due to non-payment of previous dues.

Sources said the corporation was yet to clear bills amounting to nearly Rs 5 crore for various projects undertaken by the contractors. The civic body owes nearly Rs 1 crore to the contractors engaged in last year’s de-silting operations.

As the civic body and the association are now at loggerheads, the annual silt removal operation is likely to run behind schedule.

The corporation usually completes the tender process by March end and the silt removal job is over by May. “We have been forced to boycott the tender process as the corporation has not cleared our dues for the de-siltation conducted last year for which we are facing a lot of problems,” said president of the association Kashinath Jena.

An association member said that at a meeting held last week, the senior officials had assured them to clear the bills by Monday. But, the civic body is yet to clear the dues.

Sources said the corporation usually clears bulk of the contractors’ bills during October. But, there was a deviation owing to transfer and suspension of a few civic body officials following the alleged embezzlement of Phailin relief materials last year.

“All drains in several localities are now choked and no step has been taken towards removal of silt from even the smaller drains. As a result, several areas might reel from acute waterlogging this monsoon,” said Badambadi resident Umesh Rout.

De-siltation operations are essential to deal with the problem of waterlogging.

The corporation spends nearly Rs 1.5 crore annually to remove silt from the drains consisting of two main storm water channels stretching up to 25km.

Besides, the silt is also removed from a network of 29km of branch drains and 72km of tertiary drains and other surface water channels measuring up to 660km.

A corporation official, on the other hand, said removal of silt from minor drains was being carried out in several localities, while steps were being taken to resolve the stalemate.

“We have again invited tenders while efforts are on to release the contractors’ arrear bills. We hope that the tenders for the annual de-siltation will be over within few weeks,” said civic body commissioner Gyana Ranjan Das.