One-man commission begins to inspect smart city projects across Chennai – Times of India

Chennai: The one-man commission headed by retired IAS officer P W C Davidar has begun inspection to find out irregularities in smart city projects across the city. Official sources said inspections in the city began a few days ago.
Officials, who accompanied the officer, said Davidar has been inspecting ponds, water bodies, storm water drains and other smart city projects. On Wednesday, he visited several places including Ambattur zone’s Thangal park and Athipattu areas, and earlier, he had visited KK Nagar, Nungambakkam, and other parts of northern and western sides of the city.
The officer is expected to submit his findings in three months and so far, through mail, he has received more than 1,000 complaints from residents related to irregularities in the projects, said sources.
Arappor Iyakkam convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said the aspects of missing links in storm water drains need to be inspected. “In various places, instead of connecting the missing links, they have reconstructed the storm water drains,” he said.
He added that in various drain work, gradients have not been proper leading to water stagnation, despite spending so much money. “Water body restoration work too needs to be looked at,” he said.
GIS expert Dhayanand Krishnan, who has worked with the Metrowater and the corporation previously, said the smart city irregularities must be looked both above and under the road. “Whether there are separate utility ducts built in smart payments for fibre cables, whether storm water drains are with adequate carrying capacity and inundation studies were done before carrying out the projects and so on,” he said.
Apart from this, various water body restoration work too need to be looked at. “Whether fire hydrants have been installed in smart city areas must be checked,” he said.