Heavy Downpour Cripples Life In Twin Cities

Photograph: Suprakash Mishra

Cuttack/Bhubaneswar: Normal life was thrown out of gear in the twin cities of of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar on Friday following heavy overnight rainfall.

In Cuttack, rainwater has entered several houses in the low-lying areas of Raja Bachicha, Labour Colony, Roxy Lane, Badambadi, Barapathara, Meria Bazar, Rausapatna and Patapola. The people in these areas have alleged that the local corporator, Mayor and MLA are yet to visit them.

To flush out stagnant rainwater from these areas, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) authorities have engaged 242 high-powered pumps.

Following overnight heavy rainfall in Bhubaneswar, rainwater has entered houses in the low-lying areas of Bairagi Nagar, Acharya Vihar, Jayadev Vihar, Nayapalli, Samantarapur, Nuagan, Shastri Nagar, Sailashree Vihar and Gouri Garden.

Besides, rainwater has flooded National Highway-16 at Vani Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Jayadev Vihar and near the Iskcon Temple at Nayapalli, where vehicles could be seen crawling through the waterlogged roads.

The heavy rainfall, which had begun in the Odisha capital at about 9 pm on Thursday, continued till 11 am on Friday.