Downpour leaves over 150 streets inundated

Downpour leaves over 150 streets inundated

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

27.11.2021

The rain that lashed the city on Friday resulted in inundation in 151 streets. The hardest hit were Raja Mannar Salai in K K nagar, Bazullah Road in T Nagar, some areas in Kolathur and OMR. Short term interventions by the civic body helped Pullianthope, Jawahar Nagar and G N Chetty road, where there were fewer complaints of inundation.

Corporation sources said 14 trees had fallen on Friday, pushing the total number of trees falls this monsoon to 696. The civic body has pressed 840 pumps into service. Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said that all these pumps will be used at night, if required.

Several activists pointed out that in order to arrive at long-term solutions, the civic body should completely rework the storm water drains. Dayanand Krishnan, a civic activist who is studying the city’s drain maps, said most drains in T Nagar have a reverse flow. “Depth of the drains in many locations is not even one feet. The width is very narrow in several locations. A proper investigation should be done by inspecting all drains constructed in the past few years. The drains will only work if constructed properly connecting them to Mambalam canal,” he said.

An official told TOI that in T Nagar and other areas, when the missing link drains were constructed between 2019 and 2020, the run-off from the road alone was calculated. “The engineers were so lethargic in their work that they didn’t even calculate the run-off from apartment complexes and commercial establishments,” said an official.

NO RESPITE : A water-logged stretch in K K Nagar