Residents of west Velachery, which was severely affected by flooding in the recent heavy rain, are demanding an additional stormwater drain network for faster discharge of rainwater into the Veerangal Odai.
The Veerangal Odai drains into the Pallikaranai marshland through a culvert under the southern arm of the Inner Ring Road extension near Velachery railway station.
Several residential areas in west Velachery such as AGS Colony and Saraswathi Nagar and areas like Vijayanagar, Muruga Nagar, Padmavathi Nagar, Ram Nagar and Srinivasa Nagar were severely inundated causing hardship to hundreds of residents. The presence of the Veerangal Odai turned out to be a blessing as well as curse as the overflowing water in it prevents the rainwater from west Velachery’s stormwater drains from flowing into the canal.
As part of the mitigation measures, the Greater Chennai Corporation built a pump room and installed a nearly 100-horsepower (HP) motor to pump out the water from the stormwater drains.
But this year, the residents of AGS Colony, Saraswathi Nagar and a few streets of Kalki Nagar were badly affected by flooding for more than two days. Geetha Ganesh, an office-bearer of the AGS Colony Residents Welfare Association, wanted a retaining wall to be built along the drain at Saraswathi Nagar to prevent backflow. Also a new drain or a macro canal should be built at AGS Colony and linked to the Odai to drain out the rainwater, she said.
A senior official of the Corporation said that at present three pumps had been installed in these localities to drain the stagnant rainwater into the Veerangal Odai. Regarding the construction of a macro canal and retaining wall for the drain at Saraswathi Nagar, a study would be done on this, he said.
