BMC Officials Make Field Visit, Constructions Blocking Drainage on Radar

BMC Officials Make Field Visit, Constructions Blocking Drainage on Radar

Bhubaneswar: With the monsoon rains remain active senior officials of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) today visited several vulnerable/sensitive locations, which are affected by water-logging and urban flooding in case of incessant rains.

The senior BMC officials were also directed to visit all 37 vulnerable points and the teams concerned were also asked to be in high alert and to help the people out in the low-lying pockets.

While each vulnerable /sensitive location has been assigned to an engineer and a team of officials from BMC and BDA, the area inspection has been made mandatory by the authorities. Under this arrangement today City Engineer Deba Sundar Mohapatra, Deputy Commissioner (Land) Srimanta Kumar Mishra, Executive Engineer (I) of BMC PSN Patro, Executive Engineer (Drainage) Pradeep Sagar Duria and other officials along with `Amins’ visited Bhagabat Sandhan area and analysed its water-logging issues.

The team has come across private construction activities on the way of water discharge and drainage. At the Bhagabat Sandhan area under Ward No. 19 of BMC is a sensitive area marked by the civic body with respect to water-logging, the team has ordered “stop construction’’ to a land owner. After having a discussion with some local residents during their visit the team has asked the person concerned to wait for some days for the BMC team to study the land records and to check the status of the owner’s land where he was doing construction work and obstructing drainage.

Besides Bhagabat Sandhan the above team also visited several other vulnerable pockets like the Khimji Lane under Ward No. 38 opposite ISKCON Temple in Nayapalli area. After that they went to CRP Square and inspected the culvert constructed by NHAI and found siltation and garbage inside. They also informed NHAI to clean the drain and culvert of NHAI for free passage of rainwater.

Meanwhile at 12 different vulnerable locations today total 17 pumps were deployed to pump out the rainwater. The teams comprising engineers and officials are also on high alert to avert any situation arising out of the water-logging and urban flooding issues. Out of the 17 points deployed so far, while BMC has provisioned 12 pumps, Odisha Fire Services has stationed five pump sets.