The underground drainage channel without its cover in Chintamaniswar and (above) a man helps a biker to get his bike back on the road after it fell into a gaping hole on Wednesday. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: A street with an underground drainage channel in Chintamaniswar area in Ward No. 49 of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been badly damaged.

Local residents have so far encountered at least 35 big and small accidents on the street with constant flow of water eating into the concrete.

With the upper part of the channel full of silt, the underground pipelines near Choudhury Colony are getting jammed. This has led water to either overflow or wash away a major chunk of the soil and sand filling beneath the concrete road.

The BMC has written a letter to the water resources department to take remedial measures.

“The upper portion seems alright, but it might cave in at any point of time. Local residents are apprehensive that there may be accidents anytime. We have already informed the civic authorities and they are going to do the needful,’’ said local councillor Amaresh Jena.

Businessman and local resident Binod Majhi said: “As one iron plate is missing many people on two wheelers are getting injured and at least 35 accidents have taken place here in the last two months.’’

Retired engineer-in-chief (EIC) of the public works department, Nandanandan Das, who is also a resident of Ward No. 49, said: “The tunnel was planned nearly 30 years ago and perhaps then engineers did not take into account basic theories of engineering.

“The water of the natural drainage channel comes from the state secretariat and Unit II. It comes to the channel through Ashok Nagar and Cuttack Road.”

He added that underground tunnels were unable to carry the load of water and this had badly affected the road and the tunnel. He had asked the BMC to go for a bridge-like structure for the stretch at Choudhury Colony so that there would be no problem cleaning it.

“The two tunnels cannot take the load of water and when they are blocked by solid waste, the water either comes to the upper surface or flows onto the road. If the stretch had a bridge-like structure, solid waste would not have jammed the tunnels,’’ the retired EIC added.

City engineer of BMC T.B.K. Shroff said: “The 10 natural drainage channels are under the direct management and control of the water resources department, so we have already drafted a letter for their experts to go for an on-site verification and assessment of the situation.”

He added the letter would be sent through the commissioner and mayor.

“If after the joint verification we find that the stretch has faults, we might declare the road unsafe.’’