The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Watery woes continue for many residents

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Monday, Dec 01, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Watery woes continue for many residents

City Bureau

Overflowing sewage and mosquitoes add to their problems

— Photos: M. Karunakaran, S.S. Kumar and Chennai Corporation

NO RESPITE YET: (from left) A view of an inundated road at Ram Nagar in Velachery; Motorists struggle on 100 Feet Road in Vadapalani; Chennai Corporation workers repair a damaged road in Adyar on Sunday.

CHENNAI: A number of residential areas in south and west Chennai suburbs continued to remain waterlogged on Sunday and people were yet to return to their marooned houses after the recent rain.

Residential colonies at Velachery, Madipakkam, Ullagaram-Puzhithivakkam and Thoraipakkam are under sheets of water.

K. Vidya, a resident of Kubera Nagar Extension in Madipakkam, had to vacate her house with her two kids, as snakes started entering the flooded house. Residents in Ram Nagar and Kubera Nagar in Madipakkam could reach the main road only by boat.

B. Kannan, a resident of Prabhu Nagar in Thoraipakkam, said that water tended to stagnate for months together forcing people to remain indoors. Overflowing sewage and mosquitoes compounded their woes. A few families from Taramani and Perungudi have taken shelter in Taramani and Perungudi railway stations for the past two days.

P.V. Krishnan, a resident of Vijaya Nagar, Velachery, said the reasons for the area being flooded easily were the clay soil, which prevented water from being absorbed, and low level of the land. With numerous developments on the adjoining marshland areas, the residents continued to be at the receiving end.

K. Swamiraj, a resident of Srinivasa Nagar in Ullagaram-Puzhithivakkam, had come up with a plan several years ago to prevent flooding in and around Velachery. He had suggested a tank with huge storage capacity in the vacant space between Karapakkam and Sholinganallur near the Buckingham Canal, to compensate for the reduction in the storage capacity of the marshland. By creating the facility, rain water could be stored during monsoon and sold to industrial units on the Information Technology corridor.

Bad roads

Most of the arterial roads such as Velachery Main Road, Taramani Link Road, Medavakkam Main Road and the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road remain inundated and have started crumbling. Medavakkam Main Road and Taramani Link Road are dotted with potholes and craters. Even a number of interior roads in Velachery, which were re-laid recently, have not escaped damage. Overflowing sewage is posing health hazards for residents in areas such as Sarathy Nagar, Baby Nagar, Annai Indira Nagar, Ram Nagar, Vijaya Nagar, Muruga Nagar and Tansi Nagar in Madipakkam and Velachery. A damaged sewage pipeline on L.B. Road was being repaired.

Water-logging and craters on 100 Feet Road in Vadapalani is proving profitable for two-wheeler and four-wheeler mechanics, who have set up base there. Patch work on city roads were taken up on Sunday by Chennai Corporation workers. About 150 tonnes of hot mix have been prepared for the repairs on dry roads. Other roads will be repaired after draining the water.

About 100 medical camps were conducted at various localities and 1.28 lakh food packets distributed to the affected. With workers of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department removing encroachments on Ambattur Industrial Estate Road and Officers Colony, water-logging on this arterial road had reduced considerably, according to S.Muthuswamy, a resident of East Mogappair. Many streets were inundated in Anna Nagar Western Extension under Ambattur Municipality after the recent rain. Storm water drains on Ambattur Industrial Estate Road had been covered with concrete slabs and the space taken over by commercial outlets. The structures covering the drains were broken open and the drains desilted.

Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department Secretary Niranjan Mardi and Villivakkam MLA B. Ranganathan supervised flood relief operations in Ambattur. Flood relief assistance to the tune of Rs. 41.94 lakh has been extended to 2,097 families in Kancheepuram district. Labour Welfare Minister T.M. Anbarasan distributed the assistance to affected people at Pallavaram on Saturday. Ten kg of rice, a litre of kerosene, clothes and financial assistance of Rs.2,000 were given to each of the affected families.

No classes

The Kancheepuram district administration announced a holiday for school students on Monday. However, teachers and non-teaching staff were asked to remain present in schools on general duty.

District Collector Santosh K. Misra issued a warning that severe action would be initiated against persons attempting to damage tank bunds. A total of 565 tanks out of 917 in lower-Palar division in Kancheepuram district have attained full tank level (FTL). Another 175 tanks have reached 75 percent of their FTL and 90 tanks, 50 percent of FTL.

According to Chennai Collectorate sources, schools in the district would function on Monday.

(With inputs from R. Srikanth, T. Madhavan, V. Venkatasubramanian and Kannal Achuthan)

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