Chennai: Parts of southern suburbs turn pools – Times of India

Motorists struggle on GST Road near Pallavaram after the spell of rain on Tuesday

CHENNAI: The rain on Tuesday and Wednesday led to heavy waterlogging in parts of Chrompet and Pallavaram that residents blame on encroachments on water channels along the eastern side of GST Road and choked railway culverts.
Chrompet residents said that successive governments haven’t resolved the waterlogging issue, which has made their lives difficult every rainy season for more than two decades. Rain water from the western side of GST Road (settlements along Tiruneermalai) naturally flows towards Pallavaram lake on the other side. But for this water channels have to be free of encroachments, culverts widened and storm water drains made effective.
“Despite submitting a survey and audit report to the state government on encroachments in 2016, no action was taken,” said David Manohar of Arappor Iyakkam, also a resident of Chrompet.
Next are choked culverts. The British regime constructed less than half-a-dozen culverts below the railway tracks (which run parallel to GST Road) to ensure that rain water reached the other side easily.
Social activist V Santhanam said that these culverts were blocked and the one near Chrompet police station is used for taking electric cables and other utility lines to the other side of the road.
“No effort was made for the past 20 years to construct new culverts. The lockdown period, where no trains were operated, could have been used to take up such works,” he added.
He also complained that the storm water drain work started by highway authorities two years ago was slipshod and slow. In response, a highway engineer said that they had to remove many electric posts to construct drains along the entire GST stretch and work would be completed soon.
“Though we have asked railways repeatedly to expand the culvert to ensure that the water outflow was proportionate to inflow, there was no response. On Wednesday, the area recorded 69 mm of rainfall. Water dispersal points got choked and resulted in water-logging,” he added. Pallavaram MLA E Karunanidhi said he raised the issue with railways in February 2020 and urged authorities to act upon it at least now.