April 21: Mayor M. Subramanian on Wednesday kick started the construction of new stormwater drains to alleviate flooding in parts of South Chennai. The new drains will be constructed under the Rs 1,447 crore micro and macro drain project funded by centre under JNNURM scheme. The city corporation will construct micro drains at a cost of Rs 814 crore and the public works department would construct major drains at a cost of Rs 633 crore, the Mayor said.

And to mitigate problems of rainwater stagnation in Velachery, the civic body will undertake a total of 57 works including construction of canals and drains to excess rainwater. The corporation will construct drains covering 32.62 km at a cost of Rs 47.52 crore and PWD would construct major drains in the low lying areas of Velachery. For Velachery alone the government departments will shell out Rs 129 crore for the new drains, he said. The new drains on completion would benefit around 63 residential localities in and around Velachery including Shankar Nagar, Tansi Nagar, Kuberan Nagar, VGP Selva Nagar, Padmavathy Nagar and Indira Nagar.