The Hindu 19.05.2010
Stormwater drains construction begins
Staff Reporter
| Chepauk, Royapettah, Gopalapuram will benefit |
— Photo: S. R. Raghunathan 
Launched: Mayor M. Subramanian at the launch of the work to construct stormwater drains in Triplicane under the JNNURM on Tuesday.
CHENNAI: Construction of 33.51-km-long stormwater drains for the Central Buckingham Canal watershed, at a cost of Rs.47.17 crore, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was launched by the Chennai Corporation in Triplicane on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inaugural function, Mayor M.Subramanian said that various areas, including Chepauk, Royapettah, Gopalapuram, Dr.Radhakrishnan Salai and R.A. Puram would benefit from the project.
He said the Public Works Department would also take up deepening, desilting and construction of concrete retaining walls on the banks of Central Buckingham Canal for a length of 7.10 km at a cost of Rs.68.28 crore.
He said of the 12 packages, work on Velachery, Kolathur and North Buckingham watersheds began recently at a total cost of Rs.93.55 crore.
Work orders have been issued for Mambalam Canal and South Buckingham Canal watersheds. The bid for the Royapuram watershed would be placed before the Council for its approval on May 24.
Before the North East monsoon out of the 32.6 km stormwater drain work in Velachery 10 km would be completed.
In Kolathur out of the 20 km drains, 8 km is likely to be completed.
Corporation officials said that over the next two years around 470 km of stormwater drains would be constructed in the city at a cost of Rs.655 crore.
This includes re-construction of 183 km length of existing stormwater drains. The civic body would also take up work on 28.64 km of canals. The stormwater drain network in the city is 935 km long.
Though most of the drains would be constructed on footpaths, officials said that around 40 per cent of roads would be cut as intersections too would have to be covered.
It would take about a month for each work to be completed, which includes curing time.
Depending on the carrying capacity of the drains, they have been classified into collection drains, feeder drains and arterial drains, which finally take the water to the canals.
