Chennai: The State Highway Department has identified 41 flood-prone zones along the arterial road at City Chennai and has mobilized 20 special teams to continue to monitor this water logging.
The team is equipped with a diesel pump, earthmover and mini-truck, and will work all the time in this rainy season shift, said Minister of State Minister E V Velu.
“In addition, improvement measures will be taken in places that are susceptible to key stretches this week,” said a senior official from the department.
These include places in Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, EVR Periyar Salai, Inner Ring Road, Mount-Medavakkam Road, Madipakkam-Tambaram Road and East Coast Road (ECR).
The official added that the mitigation work was finished in the two-prone zones of such floods along the Poonamalle High Road earlier this year was effective and there was no excess logging there.
At present, flood mitigation work is taking place near the police commissioner office in Vepery.
The department is in the process of preparing three culverts with an estimated cost of 1 crore to prevent inundation in place, the Minister of the Velu said.
Two other contracts have been completed.
Overall, the highway department will spend around 212 crores to work in 37 places, including in stormwater waterways and small bridges throughout the city.
The department maintains the SWD network for 303 km and 1,041 minor and main bridges, according to official data.
V Bharadwaj, a resident of Pallikarani, said the government must complete such mitigation work before the rainy season.
“But without cleaning encroachment on the water channel, they will not be able to find a permanent solution,” he added.
For example, the highway department has not eliminated wild residents from GST Road and expanded culverts.
The culverts were built by the British, now used to carry a line of utility cables that block run-off, Bharadwaj explained.
D Ezhilaria, a resident activist from Egmore, accompanied him.
“Blocking road traffic to facilitate such work now causes so much discomfort for the public,” Ezhilaria said.
Traffic transfers have deteriorated vehicle congestion, especially during rush hour, at the intersection that connects the Eggore train station with Chennai Central, he added.
On average, it takes 15 to 20 minutes to cross the stretch of 1 km.