CHENNAI: Without further rains, all areas in the city is expected to be free from waterlogging by Thursday night, said city corporation officials. According to official data, stagnant water from 539 of 542 inundated locations in the city were cleared by Thursday evening. Officials added that work on the remaining locations is on. As many as 213 medical camps were set up by the corporation and health department to tackle any vector-borne disease outbreaks.
Some parts that were inundated on Wednesday, including Mullai Nagar in Vyasarpadi, parts of Pulianthope and Pattalam, were cleared, barring a few streets like Kanakaraya Thottam and Ansari street in Pattalam where water mixed with sludge, say residents. A part of Valluvar Kottam high road was still waterlogged, along with a few roads in Velachery’s Dhandeeswaram.
Work orders have been issued for urgent storm water drain repair work in areas like Aziz Mulk street and Peters road.
The corporation has deployed 1,233 motor pumps across the city and is handling 7,470 complaints that it has received through its helpline numbers from Wednesday to Thursday.
Rainwater harvesting
The corporation has also proposed to set up revamped rain water harvesting structures in 770 locations, mostly in parks and playgrounds, at an outlay of Rs 8.4 crore. As per plan, 320 structures will be set up in the south region, 200 in the central region and 250 in north region.
“We did have rain water harvesting structures in some parks but these are much bigger structures in permeable locations that comprise eco bloc infiltration tanks,” said a corporation official.
The water deposited in these tanks will be filtered through a filtration unit and stored for further reuse including for watering gardens. This is in addition to the sponge parks that are already being constructed in various parks across the city.
Will expedite steps to clear water hyacinths: Min
Chennai: Minister T M Anbarasan on Thursday inspected ongoing flood mitigation projects in Tambaram Corporation, including the construction of a stormwater drain in Moovarasampet and a surplus water canal at Selaiyur Lake.
He assured that efforts to clear water hyacinths from local lakes would be expedited. During his visit, the minister inspected the Moovarasampet Lake, where a 1.85 km cut-and-cover stormwater drain is being constructed.
The Rs 34-crore project aims to prevent flooding by diverting surplus water to the nearby Keelkattalai canal. Anbarasan noted that residents of Anbu Nagar, Rukmani Amman Nagar, Thiruvalluvar Street, and Moovarasampet have long suffered from flooding during the monsoon. “Forty percent
of the work has been completed, and the rest will be finished in the next four to five months. Once completed, this area will no longer face flooding, no matter how heavy the rainfall,” he told reporters.