Meeting to resolve difficulties in SWD work on Aug 3: KN Nehru

CHENNAI: Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru on Tuesday said that he has convened an inter-departmental meeting on August 3 to resolve practical difficulties faced by the contractors executing the stormwater drain (SWD) works.

After inspecting SWD construction work in the Kosasthalaiyar basin in North Chennai, he said that he has called an inter-departmental meeting with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, Chennai Metro Water, Greater Chennai City Police, councillors, officials and contractors on August 3 to resolve them.

He said that 40 per cent of works are completed on the Kosasthalaiyar basin area and they have time to complete till 2023. “Contractors are complaining of practical difficulties like traffic, delays in the removal of trees and shifting of electricity poles leading to delays. They have to wait for the removal of trees or poles and construct the SWD around it, ” he said, adding that work on around 300 km of the drain was going on at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

Nehru said that the water stagnation has become an issue on the Ripon Buildings premises during heavy rainfall. “It is due to obstruction caused by the Metro Rail works. So, we have taken up work at a cost of Rs 26 crore. We are also constructing a big sump in front of the Rippon Building to pump the water from Veperty into the canals,” he said.

He said that he would be visiting areas like Vepery, Prakasam Salai, Gandhi Road channel, Pulianthope High Road, Kasturi Rangan Road, Vijaya Raghava Road, Mambalam channel, GN Chetty Road and Buzullah road, which had witnessed flooding and direct the contractors to complete work before the onset of the monsoon.