BMC anticipates waterlogging, sets up control room
Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made arrangements to tackle waterlogging, if any, caused by heavy rain under the influence of Cyclone Amphan that will make landfall between West Bengal and Bangladesh on Wednesday afternoon.
The civic body has deployed engineering personnel at all vulnerable points of the city to prevent waterlogging. It has also set up a control room to receive complaints of waterlogging from residents and ensure smooth deployment of teams to rescue people trapped in flooded localities.
BMC commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhury said 27 high-power motor pumps of the state fire department had been kept ready, besides 20 of the BMC. “We have formed six teams (two per zone) for deployment in areas under our jurisdiction. Coordination teams at the control room will move people if needed. Generator sets will be kept on standby for use in vantage points, vulnerable locations and the BMC office in case of a power failure,” said the commissioner.
BMC sources said the usual waterlogging suspects — Mayfair Square, Jayadev Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Bhim Tangi, Gourisankar English Medium School area and Saswat Vihar — are under observation. Besides these localities, engineering and rescue teams have been allotted to Hanspal, Sriram City, Nayapalli Behera Sahi, Bairagi Nagar, Jharpada, Laxmisagar, Satabdi Nagar, Gayatri Nagar, Mallick Complex, Garage Chhak, Panchasakha Nagar and five other localities.
No temporary shelter has been set up this time, and no one has been evacuated yet. Last year, 130 cyclone shelters had been set up in the city ahead of the landfall of Cyclone Fani and 60,000 people had been moved there.
Unlike Fani, which battered Bhubaneswar with rain and winds of up to 200kmph, Amphan is likely to bring only rain to the city. The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall, with winds of 60kmph speed. “At this rate, there is no danger of uprooting of trees and electric poles. Big hoardings, too, should not be blown away. Rooftop hoardings in the city have anyway been removed,” said a BMC officer.