BMC To Complete De-Siltation Work By June First Week

Bhubaneswar: With the city experiencing unprecedented Nor’wester-triggered pre-monsoon rain, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to complete the de-siltation work on or before the first week of June to prevent drainage-related issues.

In a meeting chaired by additional commissioner Subham Saxena, it was highlighted that tender process has already been over and other related steps have been taken care of, to meet the deadline for completing the de-siltation work.

Saxena suggested urgent measures to contain the situation on a war footing, while discussing status of drains in 67 wards.

The meeting was informed that BMC-managed 10 city wards and agency-managed 57 wards have areas more vulnerable during heavy rainfall situation.

Listing of vulnerable sites and its preparatory assignments were discussed and elaborated by the engineering wing of the civic body. Like previous year, a control room will be made operational to respond to emergency calls of citizens. This will be a 24×7 basis service of BMC. A roster duty for the same will be formulated to translate the initiative of BMC into action on ground. The number will be made available to the public soon.

All the agencies concerned have been asked to ensure strict supervision of their assigned wards and intimate the same to BMC on a regular basis. Several squads will be formed to respond to the issues and to pump logged water with their machinery.

In emergency cases, help of inter-departmental support will be sought to relieve the public from such critical situations.

A list of all drains was shared with all the participating members and the agencies.

The meeting was attended by BMC chief engineer, two executive engineers, all assistant executive engineers, assistant health officer and all junior engineers.