No new drains for narrow stretches
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Only 25 per cent of the Rs 1,447-crore micro and macro drain project that was started in 2010 to alleviate flooding in Chennai has been completed till date.
To make matters worse, the corporation might just give up the idea of constructing new stormwater drains along the narrow interior roads.
A resolution will be tabled before the city corporation council on Friday and under the plan the revised estimates of the project would come down from Rs 814.88 crore to Rs 747.64 crore.
However, the PWD, which is jointly executing the project, has revised its estimates and will be completing the project as per its earlier design schedule.
Ripon Building sources said that under the project, the city was divided into 12 rainwater catchment zones and surplus storm water from flood-hit areas of Kolathur, Velachery, Maduravoyal and Okkium Maduvu was planned to be diverted to Cooum, south Buckingham canal and Adyar. Interior roads that lacked storm water drains were assured of new drains.
However, due to difficulty in execution, the corporation will now avoid the narrow roads though the main roads and wide roads will be covered under the project.
“The original idea of the project was to alleviate flooding in main roads and interior roads. The then mayor and commissioner frequented Delhi half a dozen times to obtain additional grants but the funds remain unutilised and the project status remains grim,” complained Mr Subash Chandra Bose, DMK floor leader in the city corporation, adding, “And I wonder how the corporation is going to drain the water-logging in small narrow roads,” he added.
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