Senior officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation are confident of a flood-free North-East monsoon, particularly in south Chennai, because of the efficient working of the storm water drains (SWD) constructed under the Smart City missions.
In the past few weeks when there were heavy rains in southern parts of the city, some arterial roads, including the GST Road, were flooded but the interior streets were free of water stagnation. The civic body received only three complaints of water stagnation in Perungudi zone covering Ullagaram-Puzhithivakkam (Ram Nagar 6th street), Kottivakkam (Venkatesapuram 7th street) and Perungudi (Seevaram 1st street) divisions, of which one was in a vacant plot.
A senior official of the corporation said despite the heavy rain on Saturday night when the southern parts of the city experienced nearly 40 mm of rain, the interior areas remained flood-free. From several low-lying localities such as Nanganallur, Madipakkam, Ullagaram-Puzhithivakkam, Velachery, Taramani, Pallikaranai, and Perungudi where SWD facility have been constructed, fewer complaints of rainwater stagnation were registered.
The senior civic official said the storm water drain network constructed in newly added areas of Alandur and Perungudi and parts of Velachery, has a capacity to accommodate nearly 70 mm of rain per hour . The drain network facility constructed in newly added areas, which are low-lying and prone to flooding even for normal rains, have been designed based on the recommendations of the international funding agency including the World Bank.
V. Rama Rao, resident welfare activist of Nanganallur, said during the December 2015 floods, localities such as100-feet Road, Lakshmi Nagar Main Road, 5th and 6th streets, were all submerged in knee-deep water. With the civic body completing the SWD and linking it to the micro canal at Puzhuthivakkam, which flowed into the Veerangal Odai at Vanuvampet, there has been no water stagnation during the South-West monsoon. The SWD has come as a relief to the residents of Hindu Colony, Voltas Colony, TNGO Colony, Kuppusamy Naidu Layout, Civil Aviation Colony, SBI Colony and Sri Ram Nagar.
The civic officials are hopeful that the drain network established under the Smart City mission of Phase I and II involving a cost of ₹120 crore, stretching for more than 400 km would not go waste when the North-East monsoon arrives this year.
