CHENNAI: The city escaped any major water logging after the rain early on Thursday. Areas such as Seethammal Colony, Chittaranjan Salai and GN Chetty Road in the central regions, which often bear the brunt, were not waterlogged. However, it remains to be seen if water drains as planned in the face of heavier rains.
Corporation staff in the meantime are continuing with last-minute work. As of now, it has completed 142 km of the 167 km of stormwater drain projects taken up across the city under eight schemes, including Singara Chennai 2.0 and Infrastructure & Amenities Funds. A total of 71km of concrete restoration of stormwater drains remains to be completed.
“We have deployed 112 pumps to drain out water. We are also carrying out stormwater drain restoration work and repairing roads on a war footing,” said a senior corporate officer. Stormwater drain restoration work at the central railway station, Allikulam Link Road, Mambalam Righ Road, MTH Road etc., are in various stages of completion. It also turned to precast box culverts to finish work within 36 hours in some areas. Repair of roads has been undertaken at Sholinganallur, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Valasaravakkam.
Meanwhile, Tambaram Corporation, which usually suffers from waterlogging and inundation during the monsoon, is also working hard to avoid it.
“We had identified 12 vulnerable areas where we undertook stormwater drain work, of which work is complete in 10 locations. We are confident that wherever work has been completed, there will not be waterlogging this time,” said a senior officer from Tambaram Corporation. As for the remaining areas, officials say that work will be completed within 10 days.
While it also carried out road restoration work worth Rs 10 crore recently, the corporation still has streets where commuting during the monsoons remains a challenge.
“There are many streets where underground sewerage system work is on. Those roads cannot be repaired immediately but we are working on making them motorable,” the official said.