Following the rains early this week — which are best described as “moderate” — residents of Seethammal Colony were busy exchanging congratulatory messages on WhatsApp.
In normal circumstances — which was actually anything but normal — even moderate rains would have made a good number of the streets (the locality has nine streets) a slushy affair, making navigation difficult. However, this time around, all the streets were free of inundation.
The president of the residents welfare association at Seethammal Colony, M Renganathan; vice-president A Sridharan; secretary P Karthikesan and joint secretary A Alaudeen strolled down the streets to assess what the rains had meant to the neighbourhood this time around. There was just three things it signified: Relief and joy; and to a minor degree, a sense of achievement.
The residents of Seethammal Colony had been interacting regularly with the Corporation officials, following the catastrophic inundation of November 2021, says Sridharan.
“We had a map of the SWD system in and around Seethammal Colony and that was a good starting point,” says Sridharan. “We were regularly following up on developments with GCC officials, who were hugely focussed on Project Seethammal Colony.”
Renganathan notes that Seethammal Colony constitutes a trough into which water from surrounding areas flow in swiftly — at least, it used to. This problem became severe following the construction of Teynampet metro station. The regular route for flow of rainwater from Seethammal Colony into the Mambalam Canal had been interfered with. There was no alternative in place — until this monsoon. In the new arrangement, rainwater flows into the Buckingham Canal. The stormwater drains-defined route for discharge of rainwater is: Seethammal Colony to KB Dasan Road, TTK Road, CV Raman Road, CP Ramaswamy Iyer Road, Dr Ranga Road, and then into the Buckingham Canal.
