The city has been receiving widespread rain since Monday night and with more rain predicted in the next one or two days, the Greater Chennai Corporation has stepped up its monitoring and rain preparedness efforts.
Senior officials inspected the rain drains at various places to take stock of the condition. Officials said a total of 807 pumps will be used in case of water stagnation and it has been kept ready in all 200 wards. However, he said no major complaints of water stagnation were received on Tuesday, partly due to stormwater cleaning and other preparedness measures.
Corporation employees in all areas have been asked to ensure that pumps and other equipment like power saws are in working condition.
Corporation commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who conducted the inspection on Tuesday, said the corporation has completed the removal of 92% of the 696-km storm-water drainage network across the city ahead of the northeast monsoon. The remaining work is expected to be completed in the next five days, he added.
“Apart from removing the silt from the storm water drains, the important thing we have done is to remove the silt from the catchment pits, as cleaning the drains alone may not help,” he said. He said that out of 30,797 siltation pits, 28,000 have already been desilted.
In addition, the officials said that measures have been taken for coordination between the corporation and the Public Works Department. Officials said earth movers were on standby near Ennore Creek, Napier Bridge and Adyar to keep the mouth of the river open.
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