One of the lessons from the December deluge is that necessity of having unclogged and wide stormwater drains, at least near waterbodies. Having such stormwater drains ensures free flow of excess rainwater and also collection of a large quantity of rainwater.
For a fortnight now, civic officials in Anna Nagar and Ambattur zones of Chennai Corporation have been following this rule while planning and executing new stormwater drains.
Key stretches including Ambattur Industrial Estate Main Road, New Avadi Road and Chennai – Tiruvallur High (CTH) Road have been witnessing this change. Civic officials and in some cases, along with State Highways officials, have been demolishing the existing narrow and clogged stormwater drains and setting in motion processes to have them replaced with new, wide and deep stormwater drains.
“During last year’s rains, civic officials had to demolish a portion of clogged drains at several points on key roads to discharge stagnant rainwater,” said S. Raman, a resident of Mogappair.
Civic officials said that the existing narrow drains were replaced with concrete stormwater drains that were at least four feet wide and around 10 feet deep. These stormwater drains are built at least one feet below the newly-laid roads to collect excess rainwater faster. Many open points with lids have been provided to facilitate declogging exercises.
“This is the first time such a massive work on stormwater drains, with a focus on their shape and size, has been undertaken. Last year’s floods is one of the reasons for this,” said a Corporation official.
Streets in the neighbourhood too were given priority with drains on interior stretches such as Fourth Avenue Main Road, School Road, Park Road, Nolambur Main Road and East Avenue Road being cleaned.
Encroachments in the form of eateries on these concrete stormwater drains were removed as food and other wastes from these roadside eateries are dumped in the drains. More importantly, the drains that connect several streets in Anna Nagar and Ambattur were connected to the nearest water bodies such as Ambattur and Korattur lakes and also to the North Buckingham Canal.
