Certain localities are hitched to an unfortunate star, one that shines enough to draw attention only in distressing circumstances.
Whern the sky is a bag with a non-functional zipper, VC Garden on St Mary’s Road in Mandaveli is a surefire headline-grabber.
Last year, during a heavy spell in December, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) got a boat to chug-chug through VC Garden First Street and Second Street to reach essential supplies to residents.
“We operated one boat for both streets, getting groceries and medicine to residents. There was water stagnation for three days, with VC Garden Second Street being more severely affected, as it is cul-de-sac and avenues for natural drainage of water were non-existent. On First Street, water drained slowly,” says Clinton, assistant engineer, Ward 124, GCC.
Unfortunately, these streets are so restricted in space they cannot have a solution they need the most, one that would allow them to exist peacefully in obscurity all through the year.
“The regular stormwater drains cannot be laid in these streets,” says Clinton, assistant engineer, Ward 124, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
“In streets too narrow for stormwater drains, usually, CMWSSB’s pumping stations come to the rescue. At that time, the motors at the three pumping stations in Mylapore had gone kaput due to excessive pressure.”
The GCC official notes both streets are narrow, and on top of that, they are packed with other utilities, which rules out the construction of a stormwater drain network.
“If we constructed one, Metro Water facilities on the street would get hugely damaged.”
Within these straitened circumstances, a solution is being worked out for these two streets in VC Garden, as for other similarly constricted steets elsewhere — the installation of HDPE pipes.
“It will not be as efficient as the regular stormwater drains in quickly draining water, but it will do the job a bit patiently.”
One assumes residents would not mind that, and would actually prefer that to seeing a boat outside their window.
