3 new culverts to stop flooding on Velachery road
CHENNAI : The highways department and the public works department have come to the rescue of motorists using the Velachery main road. The two departments have joined hands to build three culverts to mitigate inundation of the road stretch between Selaiyur and Rajakilpakkam at a cost of `1.67 crore. The culverts will be constructed on the Velachery main road near the police station in Selaiyur, at Mahalakshmi Nagar signal and near Vani Nursing Home in Rajakilpakkam.
While the culvert near the police station will help drain, overflowing water from the Selaiyur lake by connecting it to a network of stormwater drains, the culverts at the Mahalakshmi Nagar and Rajakilpakkam, will help drain, overflowing water from the Rajakilpakkam lake to the Sembakkam lake.
The construction of these culverts have come as a welcome relief for residents of Tambaram, Selaiyur and Sembakkam, because the locations which have been identified for culverts, are “uncrossable” during the monsoons. Even after light rains, these stretches have stagnant water, making it difficult to cross.
For two days, during the floods of 2015, the Velachery main road near the Selaiyur police station, held thigh-high water and wrecked vehicles that attempted to cross. “When I attempted to cross that stretch during the floods in 2015, water entered the exhaust and the engine seized.,” said Immanuel Ranjith, a software engineer.
Officials in the highways department said that the locations were selected after consultations with the Tambaram and Sembakkam Municipalities and the public. “The existing pipes were too small so we are building proper culverts now,” said additional divisional engineer Anandaraj, explaining that the work would be completed by July.