With the city receiving widespread rainfall since Monday night and weather forecasts predicting more rains over the next day or two, the Greater Chennai Corporation has intensified its monitoring and rain preparedness efforts.
Senior officials carried out inspections to check the condition of stormwater drains at different places. Officials said a total of 807 pumps would be used in case of water stagnation, and were kept ready across all the 200 wards. However, they said no major complaints of water stagnation were received on Tuesday, partially due to desilting of stormwater drains and other preparatory measures being taken.
Corporation workers across all zones have been asked to ensure that pumps and other equipment like power saws were in working condition.
Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who carried out inspections on Tuesday, said the Corporation had completed desilting 92% of the 696-km stormwater drain network across the city ahead of northeast monsoon. He said the remaining work was expected to be completed in the next five days.
“Apart from desilting stormwater drains, one of the important things we have done is to desilt the silt catch pits as cleaning only the drains may not help,” he said. Of the 30,797 silt catch pits, 28,000 had already been desilted, he added.
Apart from this, officials said measures had been taken for between coordination between the Corporation and the Public Works Department. Earth movers were on standby near Ennore Creek, Napier Bridge and Adyar to keep the river mouths open, officials said.
