The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation move to clear a clogged underground sewer line and build a new manhole threw traffic haywire on the busy Thennur High Road in the city for the second day on Wednesday.
The issue brought to fore the repeated clogging of city’s drainage network by clothes, sanitary napkins, plastic, and other wastes by commercial establishments, hospitals, and residents. Although the corporation had been insisting on construction of diaphragm chambers at commercial establishments to filter out such waste, many continue to let out sewage along with the waste into the underground sewer network, say corporation engineers.
On Tuesday, the corporation had to attend to one such problem after the sewer line started overflowing at Thennur High Road. Corporation workers and engineers had to struggle for a long time to identify the problem. Mechanised suction equipment got struck in the operation. Obstruction caused by clothes and sanitary napkins were ultimately found to be the reason for the clogging.
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With blockage of sewers becoming a frequent problem in the area, the civic body decided to build an additional manhole to facilitate quicker and easy cleaning. Normally, manholes spaced 30 metres, but an additional manhole was felt necessary here, officials said. Construction of the structure had been taken up over the past couple of days. With the manhole situated almost in the middle of the road, the work caused severe congestion on the narrow stretch just a few metres ahead of the Thillainagar Main Road. It necessitated traffic diversion during peak hours. A senior corporation official said the construction of the manhole had been completed and the concrete structure needed some “curing time.” The work would be completed within the next couple of days, most probably on Friday, he said.