CHENNAI: Considering recurring floods in village panchayats that will be added to the Tambaram Corporation after expiry of their local bodies’ tenure in 2026, the civic body has decided to construct integrated stormwater drains to cover 15 panchayats on its periphery. The Corporation has asked Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL) to prepare a detailed project report.
Flooding has been a constant problem in areas like Mudichur, one of the 15 village panchayats identified for construct integrated stormwater drains. At present, Tambaram Corporation has 993 km-long roads and around 750 km of stormwater drains. Once areas such as Mudichur, Trisulam, Polichalur, Moovarasampattu, Perumbakkam, Madurapakkam, Nanmangalam, Vengaivasal, Kuthalapakkam, Agaram and Kovilambakkam are added to it, the total length of the roads under the civic body will be more than 1,250 km. The Corporation was formed by merging five town panchayats and five municipalities, and 15 village panchayats will be brought under its ambit after four years.
“As stormwater drains were laid only in parts over the years, there is no proper drain network in most of the areas. This will be studied and proper links will be created. We will also augment the capacity of existing drains to carry more rainwater,” said Corporation Commissioner M Elangovan.
Tambaram Corporation has started laying stormwater drains in flood-prone areas under the flood mitigation fund. The work to lay 12 km of SWD covering parts of Tambaram at a cost of Rs 16.9 crore, Pallavarapuram at a cost of Rs 5.31 crore, Pammal at Rs 4 crore, and some areas of Anakaputhur at Rs 4.54 crore — is expected to be completed on October 30. “This work is being carried out to prevent flooding in the upcoming monsoon. The integrated SWD project will end water stagnation completely,” an official said.