The drainage channel No. 4 will undergo a detailed survey by the Drainage Division of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) so that every encroachment and obstruction along its course would be detailed out.
Recently, the channel was in focus for a series of eviction drives along its course.
BDA Additional Commissioner (Enforcement) Bhabani Shankar Chayani said, “Apart from drainage channel No. 4, others like channel Nos. 7 and 10 are also in the priority list of the city authorities to make them free from encroachment and people restricting the flow of rainwater would face action.’’
To start with survey over the channels on drainage channel No. 4, 5, 6 and 7 has already started.
Executive Engineer and in-charge of the BMC Drainage Division Pradip Sagar Duria said, “Once the survey is over, eviction will again start to remove the encroachers.
If the encroachment is over Government land, the structure will be demolished.
Even in case of encroachment over private land demolition will be done under Section 288 of the Odisha Municipal Corporation Act, 2003, through which the owner of the private land can apply for having compensation.’’
The survey teams include experts from the Drainage Division, revenue staff and the Zonal Deputy Commissioners of the particular zone under BMC.
However, a senior official warned that the buyer of a land in the city should first find out that whether the land is coming near any drainage channel or not.
The city administration has designated three senior supervising officers to carry out work regarding drainage development and removal of encroachments on drainage channels across the city.
Under the leadership of the three senior officials from the BMC and the BDA, 10 officials have been given individual charges of the 10 major drainage channels of the city.