Rains in Puri for the last few days have left many parts of the city soaked in water and thrown normal life out of gear. Although there was no rain on Sunday, the city experienced massive traffic jams as major roads were under several feet of water. Vehicles had to wade through the clogged roads. The district headquarters hospital too was under knee-deep water.
This has also exposed lack of preparedness by civic authorities to deal with the monsoon woes.
While drain water was overflowing on the 3-km Grand Road, the situation worsened in the low-lying areas. Rainwater had also entered the District Judge Court premises. In the court area, a compound wall caved in last week damaging eight houses. No one was injured though. All this despite the fact that civic authorities claim to be spending lakhs of rupees on addressing the road and sewage issues in the Pilgrim town.
Although the drain pipe laying work should have been completed before the onset of monsoon, it is still
underway adding to locals’ woes. Under these circumstances, all the roads get
inundated even with a drizzle.
Moreover, the civic authorities have not cleared the debris of a culvert that had caved in recently when an excavator tried to ply over it. The debris blocked normal flow of the storm water.
Similar is the situation at the beach area. Due to choked drains, the rainwater flows into the sea.
Residents, meanwhile, have demanded a permanent solution to the water-logging problem. “Puri experiences heavy water-logging every time it rains, even for five minutes. It’s time the civic officials worked to solve the problem,” said Snigdha Mohanty, a resident.
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