Address Waterlogging In Bhubaneswar At Earliest: Naveen To Gadkari

Bhubaneswar: Expressing grave concern over the severe waterlogging of the service lane along National Highway-16 near Iskcon temple and other areas in Bhubaneswar, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry to address the issue at the earliest.

In a letter to Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, Naveen said that the Iskcon temple area along the NH is getting inundated during rain as the water level rises up to 3 feet resulting in severe disruption of road traffic and damages to the parked vehicles.

He further said the occurrence of accumulation of rain water for such long periods has been observed from the days of construction of the solid high embankment of the NH without providing adequate discharge points and vantages.

“Construction of solid high embankments instead of viaducts aggravates the drainage issues by concentrating the rain water into the valleys,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

He also said that similar situation has occurred near Jayadev Vihar Square, Rasulgarh, Palasuni and Pahala on NH-16.

“The state government has requested the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) authorities time and again to construct a drain along the service lane from Iskcon area to Vani Vihar for smooth discharge of the rain water and provide similar provisions near Rasulgarh and Palasuni and Pahala. But the issues have not been addressed and as a result, the situation is getting from bad to worse,” Naveen said, and requested the Union Minister to intervene in the matter for an early solution.