Urban News

The Hindu  02.09.2010

Chennai Corporation plans meeting to discuss monsoon preparedness

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation will convene a meeting of officials of various government departments this week to discuss preparations for the northeast monsoon.

Addressing presspersons after the Corporation council meeting here on Tuesday, Mayor M. Subramanian said that canals under the control of the civic body were being desilted and works to provide concrete bed and retaining wall were under way.

A resolution to appoint S.G.S. India Pvt. Ltd. as consultant for third party quality assurance and quality control for the project to improve micro drains was adopted at the council meeting.

The firm would ascertain the quality of the construction materials and supervise the works being carried out in six packages at watershed areas such as Captain Cotton, Mambalam and Nandanam canals and Kolathur, Adyar and Velachery under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Mr. Subramanian said that to prevent inundation in the Broadway bus stand, a box type concrete stormwater drain would be constructed in the neighbouring roads, including Esplanade Road, NSC Bose Road and Fraser Bridge Road at a cost of Rs. 2.53 crore.

Similarly, work would be taken up to construct SWD network from Raju Street, Ayanavaram to Medavakkam Tank Road at a cost of Rs.1.18 crore. Officials of the Corporation said that out of 930-km SWD network, 500 km had been desilted. Workers had been deployed to check flooding during nights in vehicular subways and 100 motor pumps were ready to tackle inundation.

A total of 47 resolutions were adopted at the council meeting. These included repair and improvement of the vehicular subway near the Reserve Bank of India at a cost of Rs.96 lakh.

Besides repairing hand railings, the civic agency would re-lay the concrete road and take up painting of walls in six months.

Complaints on delay in re-laying the roads using cold milling process, inefficient fogging operations and sewage blocks and sewage mixing with drinking water particularly in north Chennai dominated the council proceedings.

The Deccan Chronicle  02.09.2010

Sept. 1: While the showers of the past two months have come as good news for Metro Water, the rain has severely affected Chennai corporation projects like stormwater drains, flyovers and road repair work. Field engineers fear that the incessant rain will further delay these projects by at least two months.

“Worst hit is the Maniakkara Chathiram Road subway coming up near Stanley Medical College in North Chennai,” said G. Jagan, a resident of Washermenpet. “The bridge work has been pending for the past two years and the recent rain is likely to set it back further. The railway had earlier delayed the bridge work by eight months and no progress is being made at present on construction below the railway track,” a corporation engineer said.

The situation is similar at the Villivakkam level crossing where the construction work to be completed by the railways is moving at snail’s pace, corporation sources said.

“The public and motorists are put to severe hardship as roads in Egmore, Perambur and Choolai have been dug up but have not been relaid,” said civic activist N. Sreenivasan, who resides in Vepery.

When contacted, mayor M. Subramanian admitted that the recent rainfall had affected corporation work. “The zonal officials, engineers have been instructed to complete pending works before monsoon starts,” Mr Subramanian said.