Flood woes for Krishna devotees at Iskcon in Bhubaneswar

An hour of rainfall on Friday morning forced devotees at Iskcon temple, here to suffer misery as storm water flooded the entire stretch of temple road along National Highway 16. 
Inundated road in front of Iskcon temple after a downpour in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
Inundated road in front of Iskcon temple after a downpour in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

BHUBANESWAR: An hour of rainfall on Friday morning forced devotees at Iskcon temple, here to suffer misery as stormwater flooded the entire stretch of temple road along National Highway 16.  In the absence of proper drainage system to discharge stormwater, the entire area remained flooded for hours. 

Overflowing road left the commuters in a lurch as they had to wade through 2-3 ft water. Besides, the two-wheelers parked in front of the temple were found floating. 

While hundreds of devotees, who had gathered at the temple at around 10 am on the occasion of ‘Janmashtami’, were stranded, a woman devotee sustained minor injury as she fell down while trying to wade through the stormwater. 

Considering the grave situation, the Commissonerate Police closed traffic on the road till 12 pm. The situation became normal after rainwater receded slowly. This is for the third time that the service road in front of the temple was flooded with waist-deep water this rainy season. 
Though the water-logging in front of the Iskcon temple had hogged headlines last year bringing widespread criticism for the State Government, little was done by the BMC and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to address the menace. 

Apart from Iskcon temple road, rain water also flooded Bomikhal road, Police Commissionerate office road and residential areas of Acharya Vihar and Jagannath Nagar exposing the shoddy monsoon preparedness of civic authorities in the smart city. A commuter in Acharya Vihar had a narrow escape after his vehicle was swept away in the man-made flood.

The two-wheeler was later recovered by him with the help of some local youths. 
BMC officials, on the other hand, claimed that the situation was brought under control immediately by installing pump sets at various locations. Officials said a wooden log that obstructed passage of storm water at a culvert on drainage channel No 10 in Bomikhal was removed to prevent water-logging in the area. They also said pump sets were used to drain out water in many localities including Mahadeb Nagar in Jharpada and slums around OUAT. The officials, however, did not comment on the issue of water-logging in front of the Iskcon temple.

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