In the monsoon season, Smart City Bhubaneswar is plagued by chronic waterlogging year after year, but the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the Drainage Division and other concerned agencies are very far from finding a solution to it. This has left the city denizens fend for themselves as the blame game begins when many low-lying residential areas and even main roads turn into lakes and motorists have to wade through neck-deep water to commute to their destinations.
On Wednesday, several low-lying areas remained waterlogged after heavy rains lashed the city. Areas like Nayapalli, Laxmisagar, Bomikhal, Sundarpada and other localities were inundated. Local residents alleged that due to blockage in drainage channels, they are facing problems in case of heavy rain. Earlier, the BMC had claimed to have made elaborate arrangements by posting pictures and tweeting on Twitter about the Gangua main drainage channel being cleaned and a massive desiltation drive of drains being carried out for discharge of rain water from different parts of the city.
To make matters worse, every year the civic body officials parrot the same rehearsed lines that, "High-power pump sets have been installed to drain out rain water in low lying areas and a dedicated control room is also functioning round-the-clock.” However, with the weather office predicting heavy rains in the State, including the capital city one can only fear for the worse and pray to the weather gods.