Waterlogged areas near Friends Colony and Ratna Villa . Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, May 20: Capital city received more than 80mm of rain last night and the downpour was enough to show that the civic bosses were less than prepared to deal with such a crisis.

Yesterday’s downpour left storm water drains overflowing and the civic authorities appeared ill-equipped to tackle the coming monsoon.

The rain left low-lying areas such as, Baramunda village, Soubhagya Nagar (Phase-I and II), Friends Colony, Bivab Estate and Ratna Villa waterlogged.

A 100-foot road of the public works department (PWD) connects City Women’s College to Gandamunda. But engineers associated with the project say that drains on both the side of the road cannot take the load of rainwater flowing in from nearby residential areas. The drains had been built only to flush out water from the road.

“The drainage division of the water resources department or the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has to look into the issue,’’ they said. For the 6,000 residents of the locality, the situation is very grave as the local meteorology office has predicted that monsoon would arrive in Orissa by June 10.

“When the construction of the 100-ft road was delayed, we fought for it, but now their engineers claim that the drains cannot take water load coming from nearby colonies. If the drains are only meant to carry run-off water of the PWD road, then what will happen to the drainage system of our colonies,’’ said D.C. Mishra, advisory board member of Bivab Complex Welfare Society. He said while his colony has 70 houses, Friends Colony has 80 plots, Ratna Villa has 40, Shatabdi Nagar 200 and Soubhagya Nagar more than 340 plots.

“All these areas are suffering from waterlogging. While the BMC drain is coming from the Soubhagya Nagar side, the drain from our colony is yet to be connected to it. Even we do not know whether it can join the drain of the 100-foot road or not. Now drain water remains blocked in the locality, turning it into a breeding ground of mosquitoes,’’ he said.

Society secretary J.S. Nayak said: “Snakes sneak into houses because of waterlogging and choked drain. If the situation continues, then the entire locality will be affected during rains.’’

Residents of nearby Friends Colony also have the same problem. Rainwater from lower-Baramunda village and Fire Station area comes through the colony and remains accumulated on the side of the 100-ft road. “When we asked the engineer concerned to connect the passage that drains out rainwater with their conduit, he said it was not capable of taking extra load,’’ said a resident of Friends Colony.

PWD assistant engineer Alok Mohanty said: “We are concerned with the passage of water that accumulates on the road. We can only take steps to save our road from damage. But we cannot include the drainage of water of the entire catchment area in our planning process as it will escalate execution cost.’’

City engineer T.B.K. Shroff, who has taken over the charge a week ago, said: “The PWD’s work is specific, but if a planning process is holistic then it can address local problems and help in strengthening the road in future. However, it depends on whether it was included in their original planning process or not.’’

The BMC authorities are now working on a modified detailed project report (DPR) on the Rs 600crore comprehensive development plan for the storm water drainage system.

Earlier, the housing and urban development department had submitted a DPR to the Centre, but the later had sought a revised DPR. Following last night’s rain, many areas of the city, including parts of Sahid Nagar, Nayapalli, Behera Sahi, Jayadev Vihar, Unit III near Exhibition Ground, Big Bazar, Raj Bhavan Square and Rajpath, Bhimatangi, Old Town , Jagamohan Nagar, Gandamunda, Lower PMG Square and Ravindra Mandap were waterlogged for hours as most storm water drains were clogged.

In Old Town area, the Lord Lingaraj could not take his ritual boat ride in the Bindusagar lake as the boat had turned upside down in the storm. The rituals were about to start at 6pm when the storm struck.

The ‘chandan yatra’ ritual, as the ride is popularly known, was finally performed hours later around 4am today.