Clearing waterlogging in “black out” areas on priority: Chief Secretary

CHENNAI: State Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena on Thursday said that the government was clearing waterlogging in areas suffering power outages on a priority basis in the city.

Briefing media persons in the company of secretaries of major departments at the state secretariat, Shiv Das Meena said that functioning is yet to be restored in 77 distribution stations of TANGEDCO in Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).

Of the total 17,704 distribution stations in Chennai, only 77 (0.47%) have to be made operational yet, the chief secretary said. As per the CS's statement, Kannadasan Nagar, Krishnamurthy Nagar and MKB Nagar in Vyasarpadi in North Chennai and Pallikaranai and Madipakkam areas are among the areas that are yet to get power supply restored. Stating that Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur jointly comprise 27, 371 distribution stations and about 578 distribution stations among them have yet to resume operation, Shiv Das Meena said that only 655 of the total 45,075 distrubution stations in the KTCC districts are not functioning currently.

Claiming that high tension lines and substations are charged and functioning, the top bureaucrat exuded confidence that power supply would be restored 100% mostly Thursday night or before Friday evening .

"Wherever there is no power supply, we are collecting distribution station wise details from TANGEDCO on the location of the stations and ascertaining why the power supply was not restored there. We are examining if it were due to water logging or other reasons. We are mapping them and giving priority to draining water from those areas. We worked on the plan overnight and rearranged pumps to those areas, " Mr Meena added.

The chief secretary also said that vegetables were sold using 50 vehicles organized by the state horticulture and cooperative departments in the affected areas after the government received complaints of overpricing by some traders exploiting the situation. On Friday, about 150 mobile units would sell veggies and milk in the affected areas to meet public demand, he added.

Chief Secretary's claims

• Water stagnation complaints received from 800 locations on Wednesday. Of them, 382 only had water logging this morning. Of the 382, 39 have been cleared and the remaining 343 are being attended to.
• Except a few coastal villages suffering water logging due to Kosasthalaiyar River, the government has restored it in Tiruvallur.
• One or two areas in Mudichur and Tambaram have power supply yet to be restored.
• 3.94 lakh food packets distributed Wednesday and 3.07 lakhs distributed Thursday morning.
• 70,743 packets, 4.20 lakh water bottles and 6.32 lakh biscuit packets and 30,789 milk powder (half and one kg) packets distributed.
• 1,199 of the 1,442 uprooted trees cleared in GCC. 243 trees were pending till 5pm Thursday.
• 20 of the 22 subways opened for traffic. Vyasarpadi and another subway will be cleared tonight.
• 267 health camps were conducted and 20,210 people were treated in the camps.
• Chennai Metro Water operated 433 tankers (3,600 trips) till 5pm Thursday.
• Another 1,000 trips will be completed before 7pm. 1,985 trips operated Wednesday.
• Normalcy has been restored in most areas except a few pockets in the city. Except for one or two areas, we expect normalcy in most other areas. We are working towards it.