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Chennai fears another deluge
Published on Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 09:37, Updated on Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 11:17 in 
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Chennai: Monsoon have arrived in Chennai bringing back the time for the city streets to wear that 'washed out' look. But is the city's infrastructure ready to cope with the fury of the rain god? While the Chennai Corporation assures that they're prepared for the worst, people fear another deluge.
People were caught off guard when a cyclone and heavy rains hit the city at the same time last year.
"Low lying areas have been identified and drains provided. Community halls are being spruced up for shelter, just in case. Fire service, PWD, Highways almost everyone is geared up," Chennai Corporation Commissioner Vijaykumar says.
The Public Works Department (PWD) is specially focusing on low-lying areas like Velachery, which are prone to floods. Although the drains and the canals are being redirected, the biggest obstruction remains the encroachment on the river banks.
Though most of the encroachments were removed after the cyclones that occurred in 1943, 1976 and 1985, they sprung up again in large numbers. Almost 35 per cent of Chennai's waterbodies have encroachments on them.
"Pallikarnai marsh in Velachery is supposed to be a storage pond for excess rain water, but because of the encroachments, the excess water cannot gets no drainage," resident and Welfare Association Member Sunil Loius says.
It might be ambitious to expect the government to tear down its own encroachments. But there's still a lot it can do before the monsoon hits full force. Like de-silting of the lakes, clearing the mountains of garbage dumped on storage ponds, and most importantly stopping further encroachments. Hopefully, the corporation will follow at least some of it’s own guidelines.
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