Patna,(BiharTimes): Heavy rains on Friday night and early on Saturday morning inundated a large part of the state capital as well as rail tracks in Patna Junction.
According to Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) East Central Railway (ECR), Arvind Kumar Rajak, several trains were running late because of overtopping of water on tracks. This is the second time within a month that heavy rain has seriously affected the rail and road traffic in Patna and its vicinity.
Passengers, who got down or who were to catch trains, faced extreme difficulty as there is large sheet of water all around railway station.
In all 92.6 mm rains were recorded in Patna from evening to night on Friday. More followed in the wee hours of Saturday.
Heavy rains in the third week of August threw normal life out of gear. Like last month water is being pumped out from various colonies this time too.
Kanderbagh, Rajendra Nagar, Kadam Kuan, Patliputra Colony, Khaitan Market etc are worst affected.
School-children had a harrowing time as they had to wade through knee or even waist deep water to catch buses. Many of the school campuses have been flooded. A few schools have to declare Saturday as holiday while several others remain close on this day.
The problem is that if last month rains marred the Independence day function this time heavy downpour have forced some of the schools to re-schedule the on-going half yearly exam.
Though the ordinary citizens as well as the Patna high court have repeatedly expressed their anger over the functioning of Patna Municipal Corporation the truth is that the civic body alone is not responsible for the mess in the state capital.
The elevation of several major roads in Patna has compounded the miseries. The lower roads and colonies have virtually become ponds forcing hundreds of families to leave their houses and shift to other places.
Incidentally when these elevated roads were being built most people, including those in the media, were applauding the then JD(U)-BJP government for bringing in an era of development in Bihar.

The truth is that these roads have further compounded the problem of waterlogging in Patna.
The way the state government has been dealing with the PMC Commissioner is known to all. Today the civic body has become a favourite whipping boy, when the truth is that all those who were proclaiming from the house-top that they would make Patna as beautiful as Paris are responsible for the mess.
This famous Parisian statement was given by the then urban development minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey (now BJP MP of Buxar), soon after becoming minister in 2005.
Water has entered the Kadam Kuan police station, situated outside Moin-ul-Haque stadium in Rajendra Nagar, while the stadium itself looks like a lake.
On Saturday urban development minister Samrat Chaudhary visited the pump house in Saidpur locality to supervise pumping out of water.
Only last month he wanted to fly to London to attend a seminar on wastes management, but chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi did not allow him to go as Patna was knee-deep in water.