CM visits cyclone-hit areas in city, announces drain design project
CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday visited flood-hit areas in south Chennai during the Cyclone Nivar, including Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements in Semmenchery and Perumbakkam, besides Velachery and Sholinganallur.
“Parts of Mudhichur, Tambaram, Sembakkam, Velachery, Madipakkam and Perumbakkam are suffering from waterlogging. The State has planned to take up long-term drain works, where massive pipes would be laid in low lying areas. This will bypass the stormwater movement by 2 kilometres and will reach the Pallikaranai marsh faster,” Palaniswami said. A major flood alleviation project for south Chennai and its suburbs has been proposed at a cost of Rs 581 crore and the central funds will be sorted to execute the project. Regarding the overall water management works taken up by the State, Palaniswami said that his government has already spent a sum of Rs 1,000 crore to construct check dams and causeways to store water. “Almost 85 to 90 per cent of this work has been completed and have started yielding results. After the completion of this project, the government will invest another Rs 1,000 crores to construct new check dams in potential areas to save water,” he said.