ISKCON temple water logging: Joint squad unclogs drain

Bhubaneswar: A special joint squad of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Wednesday carried out enforcement activities near the vicinity of ISKCON Temple in Nayapalli to solve the water logging issue.

The action took place following a meeting under the chairmanship of BMC Commissioner and BDA Vice-Chairman Dr Krishan Kumar at BDA on Tuesday evening, which was attended by senior officials of all the organisations concerned.

BDA Additional Commissioner-cum-Member Enforcement Bhabani Shankar Chayani, who led the action by the joint squad, said, “The siphon under the NH flyover after its opening towards the multi-storeyed structures nearby, opposite the ISKCON temple, had a narrow opening and its depth just near the outlet was made wider and excavation was done to make its mouth, deeper.”

The Member Enforcement, who supervised the day-long activity, said not only the width of the siphon mouth, but after bifurcation, a portion of the drainage channel was blocked by the locals and business community members.

“We had to excavate the blockage so that more water could be cleared after the siphon is divided into two branches. From the preliminary study, it was evident that while one branch of the drain is functioning, the other one was blocked completely,” he added.

Along the clearance of the obstructed drain shops were also removed.  Along with land and enforcement officials of BMC, BDA and NHAI, police and Public Works Department (Roads and Building) officials were also present at the site.

The signboards jamming the drain and illegally parked vehicles were also removed.

It could be mentioned here that the water logging on the NH service road along the ISKCON Temple is happening as the siphon was unable to discharge the water through its two branches.

In case of heavy rains, while the water level on the service road is increasing with the additional water coming from the flyover-just like opening up of streams on a hill slope-the non-clearance of drain water beyond the siphon was adding to the problem as the water level was not receding with the inflow becoming more than the outflow in the system.

Secondly, the faulty design adopted by the NHAI authority was adding to the woes as the stretch between CRP Square and Jaydev Vihar Square is having one small siphon and no underpass to allow water to flow from one side to the other.

The civic and development authorities asked the NHAI authority yesterday to take up immediate short-term and long-term measures along the NH-16 to contain the waterlogging issue.

It has become a necessity to have a proper and robust drainage system to drain out the extra water from the catchment of Nayapalli and nearby localities from the water logging zone so that in case of heavy rains water starts flowing instead of accumulating there.