The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Subways flooded, suburbs inundated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Subways flooded, suburbs inundated

K. Manikandan and T. Madhavan

Traffic hit on arterial roads in southern suburbs, sewage seeps into homes in the western areas

K. Manikandan

and T. Madhavan

TAMBARAM: The authorities stepped up relief for flood victims in the southern suburbs, including Tambaram, while having to contend with the problems of overflowing lakes on Tuesday.

Residents of Kannan Colony near Pazhavanthangal railway station staged a demonstration protesting against the discharge of rainwater from the Chennai airport into their locality.

Further, water pumped out from the Pazhavanthangal subway entered their locality. The problem was sorted out later. Traffic on all the arterial roads in the southern suburbs was hit, with motorists complaining of being trapped in snarls for hours together at the Kathipara intersection.

The three subways at Pazhavanthangal, Thillai Ganga Nagar and St. Thomas Mount connecting the these areas to the Grand Southern Trunk Road remained filled with water for the third day in succession, forcing motorists to take a long detour to reach the National Highway either through the railway level crossing near the A.M. Jain College or through Guindy and Adambakkam.

Surprisingly, the limited use subway for two-wheelers and cars at Tambaram was made usable with officials from the municipality continuously pumping out water. With rainwater ripping off the metal topping on many roads, particularly at intersections, it was hell for motorists.

Traffic moved at a snail's pace on GST Road, Medavakkam Main Road and Velachery Road during the peak hours.

Official sources said all the 63 lakes in Tambaram taluk maintained by the Public Works Department were filled to the brim. The breach in Rajakipakkam lake was caused when a section of residents deliberately damaged the bund, officials said.

Since October 20, Tambaram has received 600 mm of rainfall. Sources said that distribution of food packets was carried out by the local bodies in their respective areas and people accommodated in community centres, schools and marriage halls had returned to their homes.

Crisis in Madipakkam

Local residents from about 1,500 households in the Madipakkam-Pozhuthivakkam-Velachery belt were marooned in their houses because of severe flooding on Tuesday.

"There has been no power supply for the past couple of days," said Tandavaryan, a resident of Pozhuthivakkam.

Locals attribute their misfortune to the decision of officials to try and redirect the water flow headed for Sholinganallur from the Thoraipakkam bridge along a north-east route towards Buckingham Canal. With the canal unable to accommodate the excess inflow, the floodwaters have risen waist-high in Madipakkam and neighbouring areas.

What is now worrying residents is that the floodwaters show no sign of receding even without heavy rain in the past couple of days.

In areas such as Mogappair and Maduravoyal, people have been living for the past three days on the first floor, as sewage flowed back from the cisterns into their homes. "Our house on the ground floor is a cesspool," says a government doctor living in an apartment complex in Padikuppam, Mogappair. "We really feel cheated by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board which has chosen to construct in a low level area, without elevating the site," he adds.

Other than Padikuppam, parts of Anna Nagar are also facing the problem of sewage flowback. The city police were out in full force on Tuesday providing bandobust in nearly 40 relief centres. In Velachery, they brought to safety nearly 200 families marooned in areas such as Ram Nagar and Murugan Nagar.

Commissioner of Police R. Nataraj, along with Corporation officials, regulated traffic near Periyar Pathai on the flooded 100-ft. road.

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