CHENNAI: Up to 80 per cent of maintenance work in the city’s stormwater drains and waterbodies has been completed ahead of the onset of monsoon. Officials said all major stormwater drains in Chennai have been desilted and long hours of water stagnation, in case of heavy rains, would be prevented.
According to data the city corporation shared with TNIE, work on 552 km out of the 697 km of stormwater drains that needed maintenance, including desilting and rebuilding, has been completed. “As many as 3,392 out of 4,254 stormwater drains have been desilted. The rest will be done by the second week of October,” said a senior corporation official.
Maintenance work is yet to begin in about 60 km of the drains. “These are spread across the city and we are preparing estimates for this,” the official added. The civic body has also carried out major drain-repair work, such as removing the existing structures and building new ones across 81 locations in the city.
The city corporation had recently issued a show-cause notice to 23 contractors, asking them to respond on why they had not begun the project. The civic body had said action would be taken against them if they continued to delay the project. Additionally, in an internal transfer, Chief Engineer (General) L Nandakumar, who had overseen the stormwater drains department, was replaced by S Rajendran, who will also be heading the Singara Chennai 2.0 department. The scheme includes various waterways projects.
Meanwhile, official data show that 148 out of the 210 waterbodies have been completely restored under various schemes, including Smart City and Chennai Mega City Development Mission (CMCDM). “Restoration work on 37 water bodies is in progress and we are preparing estimates to restore another 25,” the official added.
In this regard, a meeting with various line departments, comprising police, fire service, public works, and railways, was held at the Ripon Buildings on Wednesday. Representatives from these departments were told to prepare for the monsoon and maintain the waterways and subways that fall under their ambit.