Heavy rain leaves city waterlogged

PATNA: Inconsistent rain for the two consecutive days provided much-needed relief from the hot and humid weather, but caused waterlogging in many areas of the city, thereby creating problems for the schoolchildren and office-goers.
The meteorologists have issued an orange alert for the state capital, with possibility of rain, on Sunday. The department has also issued a warning of thunderstorm and appealed to the people not to go in the open and stay away from tall trees and electric poles.It further stated that the monsoon would remain active in Patna for the next three days.
On Saturday, the rain continued intermittently throughout the day since morning. The worst-affected areas due to rainfall were Boring Road, Kankarbagh, Patliputra Colony, A G Colony, Bailey Road, Ashiana Nagar, Rajendra Nagar, Nala Road. However, with active response of the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), the rainwater was drained out from these areas till the evening. The state capital received 40 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.
PMC Commissioner Animesh Kumar Parashar said, "A total of 19 teams have been deployed in the municipal areas. The team members are connected 24x7 through walkie-talkie sets. Around 70 big and small sump houses are running continuously to drain the rainwater out. Motor pumps and suction pumps have been deployed to drain out water from the waterlogged colony roads. The water level at Saidpur Drain was recorded at 6 feet, which means there is continuous flow of water. No complaint was reported till late evening. If any resident informs of waterlogging in his locality, the PMC team immediately rushes to the spot and pumps out the logged water."
However, some areas like Langartoli Road, Dariyapur Gola, Khaitan Market, near Gandhi Maidan area, Patna Junction and localities at ward no-2 in Ashiana Nagar witnessed waterlogging during the day. Traffic jams on various roads and disruption in power supply were also reported from some localities.
"We had to face a lot of problems during the school hours around 7am. There was knee-deep water on the road in my colony. Somehow, I managed to drop my ward to the school by wading through the dirty water," said Ranjan Sinha, a resident of Gandhi Nagar Colony in Ashiana Nagar.