CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday inspected the stormwater drainage and desilting work in five Assembly constituencies in North Chennai. He said the completion of work so far has been satisfactory and expressed confidence that the rest of the work would be completed in a month.
The Chief Minister inspected work in NSC Bose Road, Central Railway Station, Walltax Road, Basin Bridge, Demellows Road, Puliyanthope highway, Dr Ambedkar College Road, Kolathur-Velavan Nagar and temple school. The total cost of the work in these areas is Rs 167.08 crore.
Talking to reporters, the CM said last week, he inspected South Chennai where 70 to 80 per cent of the works have been completed. He also expressed satisfaction with the overall works in Chennai and that these works would withstand rain with high intensity.
Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru, who accompanied the Chief Minister, told reporters that so far around 85% of the work has been completed and it would take 30 to 45 days to complete the rest of the work. Arrangements have been made to drain rainwater immediately at many vulnerable points.
In 161 places where water stagnation is expected, motors have been installed and in the next two days, motors would be fixed in 352 places to drain out rainwater quickly. In Chennai, Rs 1,356 km stretch has been taken up for desilting by the Water Resources Department (WRD) and of this, desilting is over at 1,058 km. In Central Chennai, works in 151 km have been taken up and so far, it is completed in 121 km.
HR&CE Minister PK Sekarbabu said under the Singara Chennai 2.0, Phase I and II works have been undertaken. In both phases, 95% of the work is over. In all, flood prevention and other works are being undertaken at a total cost of around Rs 4,500 crore in Chennai. Of these, the Kosasthalaiyar River Basin project is being implemented in many places including Tiruvotriyur, RK Nagar and Manali at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore and these works are estimated to get over in three years’ time. However, efforts are being taken to complete them in two years.
Apart from these, desilting has started in 30 canals under the WRD. Similarly, 10 canals for a stretch of 75km are being desilted. He said in the 22 Assembly constituencies in the city, WhatsApp groups composed of officials of all departments and people’s representatives have been created to expedite work.