GCC gets more time as Chennai set to miss date with monsoon

CHENNAI:  A potential delay in the onset of the Northeast Monsoon by a few days has given the city corporation a few more days to finish last-minute work with regard to the stormwater drains and road restoration.

The civic body is finishing work with catch pits, silt traps and laying surfaces with wet mix macadam to make roads motorable during rains. Earlier this year, the corporation took up large-scale stormwater drain work across the city. By October 11, it finished around 151 km of drain work in core city areas.

In North Chennai, 767 km of drains were taken up under the Kosasthalaiyar Basin of which 41% work is complete and the 1,100 km of drain work was only recently taken up in the South under the Kovalam Basin, leaving a large part of it left to be completed. Work in both Kosasthalaiyar and Kovalam Basins will get over only in 2024-2025, due to the scale of work and area to be covered. 

This being the case, in case of heavy rain, corporation officials are of the consensus that the core city areas will be largely water-logging-free. Whereas pumps will be deployed in North and South Chennai. “When we say the core city areas are in the clear, it does not mean there will be no water logging. There will be water logging in case of heavy rains but the runoff will drain much faster,” said a senior official.

During the most recent showers, water drained without the use of pumps, officials said. The city has increased the number of pumps on stand-by to 167 to help North and South Chennai areas, where the stormwater drain work is ongoing.

Officials are also addressing safety concerns due to dug-up roads. Of the 7,000 potholes and patches identified in around 2,300 roads, including 350 bus route roads, the civic body in this week alone has carried out 2,000 patchworks. The remaining is expected to be completed in a week.