Road construction takes place at a lower level than that of the houses and plots at Santoshi Vihar in Laxmi Sagar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 29: Plots come first at a higher level, roads come later. And the problem continues at Santoshi Vihar.

A low-lying colony at Laxmi Sagar, Santoshi Vihar has houses with a raised plinth level as per the specifications of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). However, residents are now facing problems as the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is laying roads much below the level of the houses in the area. Residents of Santoshi Vihar now fear that this will lead to severe waterlogging in the area in the monsoon.

“Our lane was waterlogged till the end during last monsoon. The authorities should take an immediate note of it and increase the height of the roads. There should also be provision of adequate drainage,’’ said Bhabani Shankar Badajena, a resident of Santoshi Vihar.

Another resident, Rabindranath Sahu, said: “The low-lying area is sandwiched between two waterbodies — Daya West Canal and Gangua nullah. However, water can pass through the road smoothly if a correct level is maintained.’’

With more than 200 plots, Santoshi Vihar is a big residential area near Daya West Canal. In 2005, the BDA granted permission for several housing schemes here under the provisions of the Orissa Development Authorities Act (ODA), 1982. However, as the area was low-lying, the BDA imposed several pre-conditions on the plot owners. The BDA had specifically asked the plot owners to raise the ground to 3 feet and build the plinth area to 4 feet.

The BDA had also asked the residents to use 20 per cent of land for plantation following completion of development of infrastructure such as roads, drains, power and water supply.

In reality, while encroachers occupied the open space, the road development was never taken up by the civic authorities. The residents had also written a letter to the BMC for building roads in the area as the required land for this purpose was transferred to the corporation in 2005.

However, as lack of coordination would have it, the BMC did not take any initiative to build the road. Neither did it ever ask the residents to raise the levels to the desired one as proposed by the BDA in 2005.

When the BMC engineers started developing the roads after years of delay, the roads lie lower than the houses and plots. Residents fear that the roads would be converted into waterbodies in the coming rainy season as the nearby canal road is also at a higher level.

BDA vice-chairman Deoranjan Singh said the permission given by the development authority was “limited to plotting of the land only. Even if the plot owners got the permission, it is mandatory to get individual permission for building their houses. When such a permission is sought, our engineers go to the site and inspect. So, it will be fine if all have taken the permission. Had they not taken permission, the structures will be considered illegal.”

BDA planning member Prashant Kumar Patnaik said: “The land permission was given under Section 15 of the ODA Act, 1982. As land availability has become very limited now, we have very little scope to implement strict actions. Also, the scheme was sanctioned long ago.”

A senior BMC engineer said on condition of anonymity: “As engineers from the civic body have already surveyed the area, there should have been a change in our approach. However, we cannot lay a black-top road in this first year as it will crack. We will do the needful in future.”