It just takes some glaring into the mirror to realise lack of symmetry is the constantly recurring fact of life. The two sides of your face are not symmetrical, but sufficiently similar to avoid an uncomfortable Dr Jekyll-and-Mr Hyde diversity. In what can be called a defining point, the Trustpuram Canal exhibits two sides to its face that not only lack symmetry, but also lack any faint resemblance to each other.
At the junction of Puliyur First Main Road and Vanniyar Street, the Canal disappears into a bridge, and as it emerges, on both sides of it, it is a different beast. On Puliyur First Main Road, the canal bridge is wider, having three spans. On Vaniyar Street, it makes do with two spans. Despite the lack of symmetry, from the look of it, the flow of water through this canal bridge should be steady during any monsoonal rush. Trustpuram Canal straddles two localities, Choolaimedu and Trustpuram, and in the latter, bridges appear more frequently and serve as indispensable aids in facilitating movement of people. These canal bridges provide access to various parts of what is called Minor Trustpuram. One such canal bridge seems capable of supporting movement of humans more efficiently than it does, the movement of storm water. Underneath, it lacks depth, an insufficiency that could be keenly felt during heavily flowing storm water. With some cleaning and desilting, this bridge might look bigger than it is and surely take in more volume of water than it can in its current state. Te dimensions of the next canal bridge seem like a huge improvement. The canal bridge providing access to Minor Trustpuram Third Cross Street is built higher, and it provides sufficient freeboard for huge volumes of rainwater to flow through. All in all, the canal bridges give the sense of having been deprieved of a closer study, and necessary corrective exercises. Garbage flinging fest
The nameboard announces Puliyur First Main Road. On the day of The Hindu Downtown’s visit, what lies around this nameboard — splinters of what looks like asbestos cement pipes and spalls of stones — also makes an announcement, non-verbally but in a powerfully imagistic manner. Standing beside the Trustpuram Canal, it gives an inkling of how the Canal is treated, not only on Puliyur First Main Road but along its entire course. The Canal is equally swamped by “civilisation” on what is called a cul-de-sac off Vanniyar Street (which sails over the Canal) and another street off Bajanai Koil Street (which also sails over the Canal, further up).
A secrtion of Trustpuram Canal
The section of Trustpuram Canal along what locals call Vanniyar Street cul-de-sac (a misnomer as this street only gets progressively narrow before tapering off, somewhat like a Mongoose’s tail, into another street, and does not end the way cul-de-sacs do) seems to have been made just for flinging garbage on the go. The side wall along the “cul-de-sac” is low to the point of being considered non-existent. A resident says motorcyclists find it easy to fling garbage bags into the canal. Thankfully, for most part, the street does not accommodate four-wheelers. Besides being charcoal-coloured from sewage inflows, the Canal is unseemly from the garbage sitting in it. Residents of the street branching off Bajanai Koil Street and running alongside the Canal observe conservancy workers clear the garbage every so often using long stick-like props, and that some residents continue to be relentless in abusing the Canal. S Rajendran, chief engineer (general), Greater Chennai Corporation, says desilting of the Trustpuram Canal will be undertaken before the onset of North East Monsoon. A new assignment for the canal The Trustpuram Canal is central to a new arrangement to clear some of the rainwater from a heavily innundation-prone section of Kodambakkam.
S Rajendran, chief engineer (general), Greater Chennai Corporation explains the route map.
SWD work on Arcot Road in Kodambakkam
“Subramanyapuram, Aziz Nagar, Parangasuparam and Railway Border Road (going towards Kodambakkam) are among areas that are relatively low-lying — in comparison to areas on the northern side of Kodambakkam — and they form a drainage plain with rainwater flowing towards these areas. With the railway track in-between, this rainwater cannot drain naturally into the Mambalam Canal. Drainage of rainwater has to be facilitated by three railway culverts — 43, 44 and 45 — which during the last rains (that is, in 2021) were far from optimally functional.
Thechief enginneer notes that taking the lessons from the last NE monsoon to heart, channels are being constucted and a subemerisble pump is also being used to make optimun use of these culverts. How these culverts are being “activated” would make a topic for another day.
Rajendran says that excess rainwater in the drainage plain of Subramanyapuram, Aziz Nagar, Parangasuparam and Railway Border Road that has not taken care by these culverts — particularly culvert number 43, which is being explored for the first time as a tool for stormwater drain management — will flow “through the drain constructed along Railway Border Road, the service Road of Kodambakkam High Road and Arcot Road and reach the Trustpuram Canal”.
