Impact of heavy rainfall minimal in Chennai: Ma Subramanian

CHENNAI: In the past two days, the city received rainfall ranging from 15 cm to 36 cm after an intense spell.

However, the impact was minimal due to the extreme measures taken by the state government, said Health Minister Ma Subramanian, after inspecting the waterlogged areas in the city on Wednesday.

The minister inspected Rajamannar Salai at KK Nagar and Double Tank road.

While addressing the media, he said, “Earlier, during the monsoon season, over 200 places in the city were severely impacted. A committee was formed for the same, and a report was submitted to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Based on that, the stormwater drains (SWD) construction work started in the city limits.”

A total of 220 km for SWD is ongoing in the city at an estimated cost of Rs 710 crore. It is a two-year project, and so far, the new SWD construction for 157 km has been completed. Additionally, in the 2021 Northeast monsoon, as many as 700 places in Chennai were inundated. Now, it has been reduced to 40 places, of which only 9 places require motor pumps to drain the stagnated rainwater.

“As far as Chennai is concerned, 16 subways are under the control of the Greater Chennai Corporation. At least 10 subways were shut to traffic last year. However, following the heavy rainfall in the city in the last two days, the subways were not closed now, and traffic was not disrupted as rainwater was drained out by motor pumps immediately,” claimed the minister.