The people of these colonies experience untold sufferings due to serious waterlogging even after a little downpour of medium scale.

"Only a drain that has been lying without renovation for years is the main reason behind our woes and sufferings," said Golam Mostafa, a retired Loco Master of Bangladesh Railway residing here for the last 20 years.

The 5300-ft long drain stretching from Foy's Lake adjoining Jalalabad Murgi Farm area to Nimtala Khal under Bandar Police Station passes through different Railway colonies like Executive Engineer's (XEN) Colony, Master Lane Colony, Panjabi Lane Colony, Firoj Shah Colony and Saraipara.

The drain is connected with the river Karnaphuli through Nimtala Khal.

The 20-foot width drain near Chittagong Television (CTV) building has now narrowed down to three feet to four feet at many points.

The colony dwellers blamed absence of proper drainage system for waterlogging and inundation.

In absence of proper maintenance and disposal of garbage at many points of the drain and illegal structures on both the sides have worsened the situation further, they said.

Loosen earth flowing with rainwater also fills up the drain as the development work of the hilltop sites for Imperial Hospital and Police Line of GRP continues without constructing retaining walls.

Besides, a road, developed by USTC authorities, has been left uncarpeted for over a year also contributes to the filling of the drain.

As a result, the areas of XEN and Master Lane colonies and a part of Wireless and Panjabi Lane colonies are inundated with drain water after a one-hour of downpour.

Dirty water enters almost all 144 quarters of the railway employees in XEN colony and 178 quarters in Master Lane colony.

About 1000 houses that grew up illegally on the railway land adjoining the quarters also submerge under rainwater.

The quarters of XEN colony and Master Lane colony were inundated by waist-deep water due to excessive rain on June 11, forcing the inmates to leave for safe shelter.

The affected families took shelter in the neighbouring Wireless Colony and Panjabi Lane that are situated comparatively on a high high land, said Jahangir Babu, a resident of Master Lane.

"We didn't face such a situation in the last 15 years like June 11 when boundary walls of many quarters of two colonies collapsed," he said.

Loco Master Kabir Ahmad, also a resident of Master Lane, said most of his wooden furniture, including beds, coaches, chairs and tables and electric appliances like television and table fan were damaged when the colony remained under rainwater for three days since June 11.

Waterlogging is now a common scene in the colonies, causing sufferings to the dwellers throughout the year, Kabir said.

The retaining walls erected on both the sides of the drain during the Pakistan era started getting damaged since 1985 and vanished by 1990, said Khondaker Md Khaled, a teacher of XEN Colony Social Welfare Coaching Centre.

No step has been taken so far by the railway authorities to re-construct the retaining walls, he added.

Md Ramzan Ali, divisional engineer (DEN)-2, said he informed the matter to the divisional railway manager and chief engineer (east) when the order for re-excavation and renovation work of the drain was made.

"We have started preliminary work in this regard and hope to start re-excavation soon to restore normal state of the drain," said Engineer Ramzan.