The Times of India      27.08.2014  

Plan for one sewerage for Patna, Phulwari?

PATNA: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) along with Bihar Rajya Jal Parshad has come up with an action plan to keep low-lying areas of the city free from waterlogging.

The state urban development department had directed the civic body to prepare such a report so that long term steps could be taken to rid these areas of waterlogging. The topography of the city is saucer shaped, posing difficulty in flushing out water from areas such as Sipara, Hind Nagar, IOC Colony, Ramkrishna Nagar, Shivaji Chowk and Lalu Path besides Kankarbagh, Rajendra Nagar and Kumrahr areas.

At present the rainwater of east and central Patna capital area is being drained out through Pahari and Nand Lal Chhapra drain to Badshahi and Khanua drains. The Badshahi drain needs to be widened and strengthened, says the report.

Areas such as Pakari, Dashratha, Etwarpur, Sipara, Dhalwan and Gopalpur, lying south of bypass, suffer from acute waterlogging problem. Also unplanned constructions without proper sewerage in these areas aggravated the problem. These areas have since 2008 seen massive constructions which eventually turned the sparsely populated areas into densely populated ones. The report suggests the need of an integrated drainage network to ensure proper drainage system in Patna civic body and Phulwarisharif civic body areas.

As for accumulation of rainwater in Jakkanpur is concerned, accumulated water earlier used to flow into Mithapur's agricultural fields. But now new institutions and constructions have come up on the vacant land, due to which rainwater flows to low-lying nearby areas such as Karbigahiya, Postal Park, Ashok Nagar etc. The report suggests construction of a sump house north of NH 31 and a drain along the railway line up to Badshahi drain to free these areas of waterlogging.