CHENNAI: Despite months of planning and deployment of men and machinery to make Tamil Nadu monsoon ready, the first spell of rain showed the downside of it all. Take the Ganesapuram underpass. It is an important link for motorists to reach North Chennai. On Thursday night when the city witnessed monster showers, the Ganesapuram underpass was fully under water, paralysing traffic. It is alleged that poor maintenance of the drain and Otteri Nullah to which it is linked, triggered inundation.
“When I was heading Chennai corporation, we built drains connecting Ganesapuram and its surrounding places to the Otteri Nullah, but they were not properly maintained over the past few years. So, the underpass was heavily flooded,” said Ma Subramanian, a former Mayor and sitting MLA representing Saidapet in the Assembly.
He blamed it on official apathy, saying projects introduced during the earlier DMK rule were not completed on time. Talking to Express, he said: “Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, we began construction of 500 km long new drains at a cost of about `1,448 crore. About 20 per cent works were completed when our tenure ended. After change of regime, they did not earnestly carry out the project works and complete them.”
‘Karate’ R Thiagarajan, a former deputy mayor, blamed inadequate funds for maintaining water bodies and water courses for flooding. “The authorities are claiming they have built new canals and drains. Funds for maintenance of canals and drains are not adequate. So, the zonal level officials are not able to spend much for desilting and clearing blockages,” he said.
The former heads of the civic body faulted authorities for failing to concentrate on linking storm water drains to major canals and rivers to ensure smooth flow of water to mitigate the woes of the people.
“The canals are not properly laid. They are diverted through alternative courses in places where encroachments have been made by influential people. So, the natural course of water is affected in Tambaram and its surrounding areas”, alleged S R Raja, MLA and ex-chairman of Tambaram municipality.
Residents of places such as Mudichur, which were badly hit by 2015 deluge, found no respite this time too as heavy flooding has confined them to their houses.
According to Subramanian, “We evolved a scheme to build drains in all the streets in Velachery and link the Veerangal Odai to Buckingham canal to let flood water from Velachery flow down. The local residents are able to breathe better now.” Round-the-clock dredging of estuaries where Adyar and Cooum rivers join the Bay of Bengal and periodic desilting of canals and drains would help in a bigger way to tide over the problem of flooding, suggested ‘Karate’ Thiagarajan.
Going forward, what needs to be done
In future, micro-level management of flood mitigation could provide a lasting end to monsoon woes as it had paid dividends at Velachery, which used to be cut off from rest of the city during heavy rain in the past