The Chennai Corporation, in association with Transparent Chennai, has mapped out all the inundation points in the city limits.
The exercise, taken up recently, has gauged the level of flooding in problem areas, said a Corporation official.
“Although we know the usual spots that flood or suffer from slow draining of rainwater, we have now used open-source software to map the areas, and taken pictures on smartphones to record them,” a senior official said.
Civic body officials hope this will help in determining why a particular area gets inundated after a spell of rain.
“We are working towards strengthening our stormwater drain (SWD) network,” the official said, adding a complete network for the city would take a few years.
“Meanwhile, we are working towards setting up permanent pumping stations and rainwater harvesting structures. We are, in some areas, increasing pump capacity from 50 HP to 100 HP, to reduce the time taken to drain water,” the official said.
The Corporation is also in the process of getting new pumpsets. “The ones used by Metrowater are not enough. We have asked for demos of pumpsets used in the Ahmedabad municipal corporation as they have proved to be very efficient,” an official said.
Review of roadsAt a meeting on Saturday, officials reviewed the state of bus-route roads, and made a list of those that need immediate attention. “We have asked officials to keep track of roads that need relaying, and those that can make do with patchwork,” a senior official said.
The civic body has also streamlined the process of permissions for road cuts. Permission will no longer be granted by ward-level officials.
“Applications should be made online and it will be reviewed by high-level officials. The patchwork will be done by our contractors 48 hours after the work is completed,” the official said.
