
Any reported inundation are being cleared within an hour, civic body ready to tackle monsoon, says GCC Commissioner
The Hindu
GCC clears inundation in an hr; 11K storm-water drains, 35K roads, 186 ponds, 15 temple tanks monitored; 23K workers deployed; encroachments removed; zonal-level tenders for pothole filling; ICCC using sensors to monitor water level.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is clearing any inundation reported across the city in an hour and is prepared to tackle any situation resulting from heavy rain, GCC Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan told reporters on Sunday, November 5.
Since the onset of the northeast (NE) monsoon on October 22, the civic body has been vigilant, focusing on 35,000 roads, totalling to 5,800 km in length, and 11,000 storm-water drains, he said.
Mr. Radhakrishnan outlined that the storm-water drain work at a few locations, including missing links at 30 spots, covering 3 km, were pending. Of this, 1.2 km has been completed in areas, including E.V.R. Periyar Salai, Walltax Road, and Guindy’s Olympia Tech Park. “Works completed on Rajaji Salai and NSC Bose Road and 5 m of linking work pending at a few spots are being looked into,” he added.
To understand the flow of rainwater, GCC has flood-charted the city — routine runoff, storm-water drain, drainage system, the basins – Adyar, Kovalam, Cooum, Kosasthalaiyar – and canals, including Buckingham Canal, 22 canals under the Water Resource Department (WRD), and 33 under the civic body.
He told media persons: “For example, the water has to flow through the SIET College area, near the Chief Minister’s residence, to reach the next location, so this spot will have ankle-deep inundation. But inundation in any part of the city is cleared within an hour of being reported. Pumps were used on Angalamman Street and in T. Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur bus stand to clear excess water.”
In the past two and a half years, numerous sprawling encroachments have been removed and extensive restoration works, facilitated by organisations, such as the WRD and Chennai River Restoration Trust, are ongoing. Challenges, such as temporary blockage at Otteri and sand dumping by GCC contractors in Mambalam, have been resolved.
The civic body has initiated zonal-level tenders for pothole filling and deployed 23,000 workers, including 10 workers in each ward, to address rain-related grievances, Mr. Radhakrishnan said. He mentioned that the GCC was equipped to handle monsoon-related challenges through routine meetings at both the zonal and higher levels, monitoring water level through the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) using sensors, and desilting 11,000 storm-water drains, including the 876 added as recommended by an expert committee, 186 ponds, and 15 temple tanks.

“He travels fastest who travels alone”. M.V. Murthy has substantiated that thought from Rudyard Kipling. In 12 years, he has set 8,125 saplings in soil and seen them through to maturity. He has gone it alone — at multiple levels. No volunteers to work shoulder to shoulder with. No fundraising to support the purchase of native-tree saplings and tree guards. The only “volunteer” who tags along with Murthy on every tree-planting spree is his steadfastly loyal Honda Activa. The only source of funding is his wallet. At 5.30 a.m., when people are snoozing alarms, Pasumai Murthy (as he is popularly known) ranges around some Chennai neighbourhood, a plastic pot filled with water lodged in the wide floorboard of his step-through scooter After serving the saplings their “breakfast”, he gets his own, and around 9 a.m., the Activa is headed to his workplace, which lacks a fixed address. An assistant manager with Ramaniyam Builders, he is not desk-bound, his brief requiring him to visit construction sites. While strapping on the ratchet-type safety helmet, he puts on an invisible green cap. During the visits to those work sites, his mind maps spots where the Chennai sun stings the hardest, shadows being scarce. These are stark landscapes devoid of trees to offer respite from a glaring sun. In May 2013, at Vannanthurai junction, not far from his diggings in Vannanthurai in Adyar, the absence of something familiar made him acutely aware of it. A stand of trees had been removed on account of road expansion. A couple of children ran barefoot on baking tar. Elders leaned helplessly against sun-scorched compound walls. “That moment hit me,” he says. “If we can cut down trees in a day, why not grow them with equal urgency?” On August 15 that year, at Adyar Junction, he hoisted the national flag, distributed sweets, and planted 15 saplings. He was not doing anything radical, only following a rule that seldom budges from the paper it is printed on. For every tree that is felled on account of development, ten others need to be planted. People could process tree-planting exercises by groups, but not by a lone wolf. Sneers came his way; he smiled them off. He recalls being ridiculed by visitors to a Corporation gym while planting saplings at Besant Nagar beach. Now, he counts those same faces among his host of supporters, his consistent efforts to plant saplings and water them earning him their admiration. The admiration derives in part from the fact that he digs into his own pocket to keep this service going — well, growing. At a time, he buys a bundle of net-type material costing ₹1,700 out of which 25 tree guards can be made, on an average. For support to those tree guards, he buys 50 iron rods (thick and six feet long) which set him back by anywhere between ₹5000 and ₹6,000 depending on their weight. And he buys saplings from a nursery in Akkarai where he is assured of a discount by virtue of being a long-time buyer. Obviously, given the financial sacrifice all of this entails, he has got buy-in from his family to do this service. Being reasonable in the allocation of time has helped him win them over: the first half of every Sunday he reserves for tree-planting and the course of the second half is scripted by his wife Maria Priya and his daughter Meha M. He has received a doctorate degree from the The Academy of Universal Global Peace for this work.