CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday granted Rs 30 crore towards undertaking immediate relief works in the Nilgiris district which has been ravaged by heavy rains and landslides. The amount will be sanctioned from the State Disaster Response Fund. He also directed the departments concerned to submit proposals on the financial requirements for permanently restoring the infrastructure damaged so that it could be forwarded to Centre.
In a release after chairing a high-level meeting at the secretariat, he said that till now, of the 55 places affected by landslides, 33 had been restored for normal traffic. Similarly, expeditious steps are being taken to restore two-way traffic on 24 roads which were repaired to facilitate one-way traffic as an immediate measure.
Palaniswami said he had directed officials to provide Rs 4,100 each for 1,225 huts which were partially damaged and Rs 5,000 for 296 fully damaged huts. In lieu of fully damaged huts, greenhouses would be built.
The CM said that the enumeration of damages caused to the horticultural products should be sent by August 16 and the proposals for inputs required for farmers at the earliest. Steps are being taken on a war-footing to repair 185 minor bridges, 115 electric poles, a 3.5-km stretch of electric cables and six transformers. Traffic has been partially restored on 153.34-km roads damaged by rains and works were on to fully restore these roads.