INUNDATED: Water from the Selaiyur lake overflows on to the Tambaram - Selaiyur main road on Tuesday morning, affecting traffic and entering homes. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: Still reeling from the aftermath of last fortnight's rain, residents of Selaiyur, Chitlapakkam and nearby areas of East Tambaram faced more trouble on Tuesday.

After almost continuous rain on Monday night and early Tuesday, the Selaiyur Lake overflowed and flooded areas around Velachery-Tambaram Main Road, throwing traffic out of gear for a couple of hours.

The floodwater entered several houses in Selaiyur and Adhi Nagar. Selaiyur police station was also inundated. Volunteers and residents dug up the road margins to drain the water from the main road.

Till evening waist high water was flowing from the weirs near the Government School on Velachery Main Road. Water let out from the lake inundated several areas such as Thiruvalluvar Nagar and Ramakrishnapuram in nearby Chitlapakkam.

T. Ekambaram, a resident of Erikkarai Street in Selaiyur, said the water started overflowing during midnight and by morning the flow was heavy and inundated several houses of the area. On November 6, they faced the same predicament. Another resident said that no officials from the Revenue, Municipal or Public Works Departments turned up to inspect the situation. M. Chockalingam another resident, said though the Chairman of Tambaram Municipality visited them after the rain, and assured them of help, nothing was done.

Encroachments

The residents attributed the repeated inundations to encroachments on the outlet channels. They said that they had pleaded with officials, including the Tahsildar and the District Collector, to save the lake from the encroachers, but it was not done for political reasons. Neighbouring Chitlapakkam also suffered due to over flooding of roads. In Ramakrishnapuram, Babu Street, Maruthupandiyar Street and Nehru Street, excess water from the weirs overflowed on the streets and made the roads unmotorable for hours in the morning. In Tambaram, stagnant water on GST Road near Gandhi Road posed problems for the motorists to negotiate the stretch between Gandhi Road and Mudichur Road.

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