Civic body plans meeting to discuss monsoon preparedness

The Chennai Corporation will convene a meeting of officials of various government departments this week to discuss preparations for the northeast monsoon.

Addressing presspersons after the Corporation council meeting here on Tuesday, Mayor M. Subramanian said that canals under the control of the civic body were being desilted and works to provide concrete bed and retaining wall were under way.

A resolution to appoint S.G.S. India Pvt. Ltd. as consultant for third party quality assurance and quality control for the project to improve micro drains was adopted at the council meeting.

The firm would ascertain the quality of the construction materials and supervise the works being carried out in six packages at watershed areas such as Captain Cotton, Mambalam and Nandanam canals and Kolathur, Adyar and Velachery under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Mr. Subramanian said that to prevent inundation in the Broadway bus stand, a box type concrete stormwater drain would be constructed in the neighbouring roads, including Esplanade Road, NSC Bose Road and Fraser Bridge Road at a cost of Rs. 2.53 crore.

Similarly, work would be taken up to construct SWD network from Raju Street, Ayanavaram to Medavakkam Tank Road at a cost of Rs.1.18 crore. Officials of the Corporation said that out of 930-km SWD network, 500 km had been desilted.

Workers had been deployed to check flooding during nights in vehicular subways and 100 motor pumps were ready to tackle inundation.

A total of 47 resolutions were adopted at the council meeting. These included repair and improvement of the vehicular subway near the Reserve Bank of India at a cost of Rs.96 lakh.

Besides repairing hand railings, the civic agency would re-lay the concrete road and take up painting of walls in six months.

Complaints on delay in re-laying the roads using cold milling process, inefficient fogging operations and sewage blocks and sewage mixing with drinking water particularly in north Chennai dominated the council proceedings.

To Opposition floor leader Saidai Ravi's complaint about delay in re-laying roads, Mr. Subramanian said there was a delay due to the incessant showers over the past two months.