Patna, Aug 20 In a bid to deal with water-logging in the state capital, the Municipal Corporation of Patna (MCP) had chalked out a plan to build 22 Advance Drainage Pumping Stations (ADPS) at 22 places including Patna City, Danapur, Phulwarisharif, Rajendra Nagar, Mithapur of Patna in 2020.
That project seems to have been put into cold storage as not a single ADPS has been constructed here. The civic officials are lucky as it did not rain heavily in Patna this season and hence a flood-like situation has not arisen so far.
In 2019, three to four days of heavy rain had submerged several localities of Patna. In some places, the storm water was 8 to 10 feet deep. The officials had taken many days to drain the water from the city at that time.
Following that flood havoc, the PMC had earmarked low lying areas of Patna to install ADPS to avoid water-logging in the city.
An official said that the construction of 15 ADPS is currently underway and the state government has allocated Rs 325.48 crore for the entire project.
The official added that in four to five places like Digha, Congress Maidan land is not available and hence construction has not started yet.
When contacted, Dharmendra Singh, managing director of Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (BUIDCO) said: “Tenders for some of the projects had already been floated last year while in four to five places the land has not been finalized yet.”
The headache for the civic bodies is not going to end soon as the monsoon will be active in Patna and other parts of the state for the next few days. The meteorological department has predicted sparse rain till August 21 and heavy rain from August 22.
Patna met department director Aashish Kumar said: “A turf line developing in the foothills of the Himalayan range and a low pressure area is also developing in Bihar. Hence, the intensity of rain and wind is expected to increase after August 22.”
Due to excessive rain in Nepal, several districts of North Bihar have been affected by floods and villagers have been forced to leave their homes at many places.
In Khagaria, the most affected people are cattle farmers who have to travel long distances in search of green fodder.
“Farm lands in maximum places in our villages are submerged. As a result, we are travelling three to four kms every day to get green fodder for our cattle. The situation is alarming as the price of every commodity is going up and the district administration is not providing any help,” said Radhe Shyam Yadav, a villager living in the Diara area of Alauli block in Khagaria.
In Darbhanga, flood water has entered many villages in Kusheshwar Asthan.
However, the water level is going down in the Gandak river in Bettiah but several villages are still submerged.
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