The Greater Chennai Corporation has started removing encroachments in flood-prone areas such as Mambalam.
On Monday, the civic body removed encroachments on roads and stormwater drains in Mambalam, following a court order. All the families have been allotted houses by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board. “This is a flood-prone area. Many encroachments were identified on the stormwater drain,” said an official.
There were 67 encroachments for two decades in Valliammal Garden, Rangarajapuram in Kodambakkam zone. Some of the dwellers had put up structures like bathroom and toilets on the stormwater drain in the flood-prone area, officials said.
Local residents had objected to the encroachments and a case was filed in the Madras High Court. The court had ordered the Corporation to remove the encroachments. The Corporation sought the State government’s help in relocating the families since most of them were poor.
The State government agreed to shift them to Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board tenements. The Corporation decided to relocate the dwellers in 67 houses to Athipattu and the State government agreed to partly fund the beneficiary’s own contribution. The GCC tied up with the local financial institutions to help the beneficiaries get loans and the families agreed to move out, the officials said.
After eviction, the civic officials started demolishing toilets constructed on stormwater drains. The Corporation will continue to resettle more families living in houses built on encroached land in other areas to improve monsoon preparedness.
“For Cooum River Restoration cases, we are continuously removing encroachments and resettling the dwellers in alternative houses. We have evicted 76 families near Villivakkam lake area and resettled them using special funds. Temporary encroachments are removed then and there,” said an official.
On Monday, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Additional Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi inspected the flood-prone areas such as Vepery, Egmore and neighbourhoods near Central Square to develop drains across railway land to facilitate flow of water in the Cooum river.
The work has not been taken up for the past few years, causing flooding on many roads such as E.V.K. Sampath Salai and other parts of Vepery. The work is expected to be completed in coordination with the Railways and Highways. The construction of culverts on railway land is expected to be challenging as it takes a long time to complete work on railway land without disrupting train operations, the officials pointed out.
