Smart City Bhubaneswar’s biggest problem, waterlogging, again haunted its denizens following after a few minutes of heavy rain on Friday. Many commuters had a tough time negotiating the inundated roads while some vehicles were found virtually floating in water in the low-lying areas.
Artificial pools were created in the by-lanes and roads at several places in the city. The situation near the Police Commissionerate building near Power House Square was such that movement of cars, auto-rickshaws and even two-wheelers created illusions of tidal waves.
The devotees who thronged the ISKCON temple in Nayapalli to celebrate the birthday of Lord Krishna had to wade through waist-deep water outside the shrine to have darshan of the Lord.
Not only this, the floods of rainwater halted transport on service and approach roads. Some low-lying areas of Palasuni, GGP Colony, Nayapalli, Jayadev Vihar, Acharya Vihar and many other areas also got inundated with water entering into houses of residents.
People had a tough time to reach their houses due to stagnant water on the approach roads.
Though the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) claims to have a multiagency control room to respond to emergency situations, no BMC officials or workers were seen on the streets.
The residents were left to fend for themselves, exposing the shoddy monsoon preparedness of the agencies, BMC, BDA and the Drainage Division, which only pass the buck instead of finding a solution to the problem.
