Revenue officials have been deployed in the city to expedite draining of stagnant rainwater in residential areas and arterial roads housing major business establishments.
The Thoothukudi Municipal Corporation, which has been facing rain-related problems since 2018, started creating a few structures to drain rainwater. These works, including a stormwater drainage channel being built to drain rainwater from Muthammal Colony and State Bank Colony, are yet to be completed.
Similarly, no credible structure has been created in areas where rainwater stagnated in the past though the Corporation pumps out stagnant water on Great Cotton Road, VOC Road, VE Road, Thevarpuram Road, Bryant Nagar, Railway Station Road, Anna Nagar, Pon Subbiah Nagar, Muththammal Colony, State Bank Colony, Sundaravelpuram and a few more areas.
When a storm water drain was constructed and blue metal spread to relay the road on the street opposite St. Thomas Matriculation Higher Secondary School recently, residents appealed to the work supervisor to extend the width of the road up to the drainage channel to avoid rainwater stagnation. However, the 15-foot-wide 150-metre-long road was laid with a gap between the road and the drainage channel.
“Though photos and videos of the gap were sent to the Corporation Commissioner through media, no step was taken to correct it. Now, rainwater has collected in the space and we are waiting for revenue officials to visit the area to tell them the problem,” said a retired teacher from the street.
When this correspondent sent the photos and the videos of the road and the storm water drainage to Corporation Commissioner T. Charusree, there was no response.
Sources in the Revenue Department said Tahsildars had been deployed in Thoothukudi to expedite the ongoing works so as to restore normalcy during Deepavali. “As the Metrological Department has sounded a red alert, revenue officials have been roped in along with Corporation officials,” said the sources.
Collector K. Senthil Raj, who has sourced a good number of pumps from other districts, confirmed that officials from various government departments, including Revenue, had been deployed to drain stagnant rainwater.
Meanwhile, Minister for Social Welfare P. Geetha Jeevan, along with Dr. Senthil Raj, visited the rain-hit areas on Sunday to expedite draining of stagnant rainwater. “Twenty-eight low-lying areas have been identified to install 180 pumps to drain stagnant water,” Ms. Geetha Jeevan said.
