Chennai Corporation has planned to commission earthen channels to drain stormwater this monsoon. The temporary earthen channels will mitigate the problems likely to be caused by inundation in 190 neighbourhoods.
Most of the earthen channels will drain stormwater in added zones such as Sholinganallur, Perungudi, Alandur, Valasaravakkam, Thiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram and Ambattur where the existing network is insufficient.
The temporary structures have been proposed as the Rs. 4000-crore project to construct stormwater drains in the added areas is yet to take off. Work on the construction of a few stormwater drains covered by the project is under way in some of the locations near Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
Last year, the Chennai Corporation advanced the deadline for desilting of stormwater drains to July. This year, many of the stretches in the 1400-km-long stormwater drain network in the city have not been desilted so far. At a monsoon preparedness meeting on Monday, Mayor Saidai Duraisamy advised officials to complete desilting of all clogged stormwater drains by September 30. The Corporation usually completes desilting of stormwater drains before the third week of September to tackle the northeast monsoon.
Officials at the 15 zones have been asked to speed up desilting by hiring additional workers.
