The deadline for the projects to improve city waterways has been extended again. The Water Resources Department (WRD) had recently sought more time to complete the remaining works and three new projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The works are expected to be completed by March.
About 80 per cent of the ongoing projects to widen and desilt waterways and minimise floods has been completed so far. The projects, estimated at nearly Rs.700 crore, were started in 2010.
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Though the works were slated to be completed by this month-end, various factors, including changes in design and alignment, time taken to obtain sanction for revised estimates and coordination with various departments, pushed the deadline to March next year. The extension of the deadline was recently approved by the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
However, the department is confident that flooding will be minimised in the city this northeast monsoon as the majority of the work is over.
Elaborating on the remaining works, officials of the WRD said portions of work to construct the retaining wall to prevent spillover of surplus water in the North Buckingham canal and Virugambakkam –Arumbakkam canal are awaiting the removal of encroachments.
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There are plans to relocate over 360 residents of Wood Wharf near Elephant Gate and Kalyanapuram and Adi Andhra Colony in north Chennai to tenements in Okkiam Thoraipakkam in a few days. Once the encroachments are removed, a retaining wall would be built along the remaining 700 m of the north Buckingham canal. A total of 10.4 km of the canal was taken up for widening under the JNNURM.
Similarly, work to improve the Virugambakkam canal is also waiting for about 200 encroachments to be removed.
Besides Central Buckingham canal, the department has started improving surplus courses of water bodies in Korattur and Porur. “We had to change alignment either to avoid land acquisition or move utility cables in some projects,” the official added.