CHENNAI: After a night of heavy rains, streets in parts of the city that are usually waterlogged after even a small amount of rain remained clear on Tuesday morning. While some arterial roads in Royapettah and Egmore were waterlogged on Monday night, come Tuesday morning it was gone.
Areas like Burkit Road, North Usman Road, GN Chetty Road, Gopalapuram, Nandanam and Ashok Nagar that were flooded last year were relatively free when TNIE visited on Tuesday. The large-scale stormwater drain project being undertaken by the civic body is one of the reasons for this.
“We inspected several areas since last night and find most areas that encounter waterlogging whenever it rains were free of waterlogging. The infrastructure (stormwater drains) is doing its job,” said a senior corporation official. Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Mayor R Priya and Deputy Mayor Mahesh Kumar inspected parts of the city on Monday night and Tuesday.
“T Nagar was free from waterlogging except near the entry point to Burkit Road and in Parthasarathy Puram. I’ve had no trouble riding in the area,” said A Ismail, an auto driver. In areas where the stormwater drain work is yet to be completed, the officials deployed pumps.
“There is a change from our situation last year. There is no water stagnation so far after the stormwater drain work was taken up,” said G Shankar, a resident of Ashok Nagar. Residents of AGS Colony in Velachery echoed his sentiments.
“This is the first time that our area escaped waterlogging even after continuous rains,” said Geetha Ganesh, secretary of AGS Colony Residents’ Welfare Association.
While most areas were free of waterlogging, isolated streets in Pulianthope, Pattalam and Perambur were waterlogged. Residents of Decastor Road and Sivarao Street in Pulianthope were seen wading through knee-deep water.
“There are eight lanes connected to Decastor Road and residents there are marooned. Vehicles cannot pass through the stretch; people are forced to park their vehicles nearby and wade through water to access shops or houses,” said M Shanmugam, a local. Siva Rao Street, which is along the disposal route for water from Angalamman Street, was waterlogged. The corporation had taken up stormwater drain work in Pulianthope including Decastor Road at an estimated cost of Rs 7 crore. Officials said only 70% of the work was completed so far.
Over 2K employees ready to attend plaints
A total of 2,040 workers were assigned to attend to power-related complaints, said Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji on Tuesday. After inspecting KK Nagar sub-station, he said, “The city has 1,800 feeders and these employees will closely monitor the feeders. The power utility has not received complaints so far. For help: people were told to dial Minnagam at 9498794987
Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5ld2luZGlhbmV4cHJlc3MuY29tL2NpdGllcy9jaGVubmFpLzIwMjIvbm92LzAyL292ZXJuaWdodC1yYWlucy1mYWlsLXRvLXNpbmstY2hlbm5haS0yNTE0MDM3Lmh0bWzSAWxodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdpbmRpYW5leHByZXNzLmNvbS9jaXRpZXMvY2hlbm5haS8yMDIyL25vdi8wMi9vdmVybmlnaHQtcmFpbnMtZmFpbC10by1zaW5rLWNoZW5uYWktMjUxNDAzNy5hbXA?oc=5
