Soon, no ground floor houses at Tambaram

Soon, no ground floor houses at Tambaram

Preetika P /

Chennai: Having learned a lesson from the floods, the Tambaram Corporation may reject building plans that include construction on the ground floors to safeguard homes.

Officials from the town planning department, who inspected flood-affected homes in December concluded that houses on the ground floor in Perungalathur, CTO Colony, Irumbuliyur, Varadharajapuram, Keelkatalai, Pammal, and Thiruneermalai were mostly inundated. “Homes here were not only built in low-lying areas but were also close to large water bodies such as Perangalthur, Irumbuliyur, Keelkatalai, and Thiruneermalai. They are vulnerable to flooding, as surface and groundwater naturally drain into these areas,” said a town planning officer of the civic body.

To make it worse, the works on the construction of rain water drains in these areas are incomplete.

Last week, the Tambaram Corporation prepared a report to prevent inundation and improve town planning. “We will be presenting this report to the state. If they approve the plans, we will be able to stop construction on the ground floors in all new residential buildings within Corporation limit. If construction on the ground floor is unavoidable, we will ask residents to increase the height of the construction plot. It must be at least 3 feet above the road level,” said Tambaram Corporation commissioner, R Alagumeena. “No house must be constructed below the road level. If the house is not on the ground floor, then the pavement can be leveled to the road. Or, slopes must decline towards the road,” she said.

Besides preventing the inundation of homes, the new proposals will also ensure a continuous supply of clean water.

Officials from the town planning teams found dirty water in the water sumps of several houses. “We could not use the water for several days. It had a weird smell, and we spent a lot of money on getting the sump and overhead tank cleaned and disinfected,” said Venkat Rao, a resident living in Keelkattalai. The report has also proposed to ask residents to increase the height of the sump wall to prevent contamination of drinking water.

Meanwhile, residents living in low-lying houses are already making temporary fixes. Some residents of Thiruneermalai have built a makeshift slope with gravel so that the chances of water accumulating around their homes are reduced.