Ahead of the onset of the northeast monsoon in the third week of October, a lot of work related to remodelling and construction of new stormwater drains remains unfinished.
Having dropped work on many stretches and pinning hopes merely on partial desilting, the Chennai Corporation officials are keeping their fingers crossed this rainy season.
“Overflowing sewage in stormwater drains has been a major hurdle for completion of work on many stretches, including P.S. Sivaswamy Salai in Mylapore and Triplicane High Road,” said an official.
The Corporation initiated work on assessment of illegal sewer inlets in stormwater drains last year, and Metrowater initiated a reconnection drive in many localities.
But the civic body is yet to compile the entire list of illegal sewer inlets in stormwater drains. “Many commercial establishments that have obtained proper sewer connection have also provided a parallel link in stormwater drains on the roads. The stormwater drains are overflowing with sewage. Remodelling of such drains remains a challenge,” said an official.
The Chennai Corporation has dropped 50 per cent of the work involving remodelling of old stormwater drains measuring 182.95 km in the old city limits. “In such areas, we have carried out only desilting of old brick drains,” said an official.
The civic body is however unsure of the impact of inadequate stormwater network in a period of unusual quantum of rainfall across the country.
Old stormwater drains had to be replaced with concrete structures because of old, damaged brickwork caused by illegal sewage flow.
Construction of new stormwater drains for a length of 320.90 km in the old city limits of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar has been completed in many localities.
Work on more than 20 per cent of the work has been dropped because of traffic restrictions and other civic development projects.
Areas such as Velechery, Kolathur, Virugambakkam, Arumbakkam, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar and Kasimedu have newly-built stormwater drains on roads previously without such facilities.
Before commencement of the JNNURM-funded project, the Chennai Corporation’s old city limits had a 935-km-long stormwater drain network.
Setting a target of creating additional 470 km of stormwater drains by 2012, the civic body has been able to complete only around 330 km so far.
Challenges pertaining to inundation of other areas without a proper stormwater drain network are likely to be tackled only after completion of a study on the illegal sewer network in stormwater drains.
