Mylapore buildings crash into ditches for storm water drain

CHENNAI: If the residents of PS Sivaswamy Salai in Mylapore thought that waking up to trenches in front of their homes one fine day without prior information was bad enough, they were in for a worse shock on Monday night, when the front of two buildings caved in.

Blaming the collapse on shoddy planning for an ongoing corporation project to replace an existing storm water drain on the stretch, residents said the civic bodyhired contractor failed to take any precautions before starting the work to ensure that properties were not damaged.

They said the contractor had overrun a buffer space between the compound walls of buildings and existing drains.

“On Monday night, the staircase leading to one of the houses caved in because of the work. On Tuesday morning, the front portion of the second house suffered the same fate,” said B Neelakandan, secretary, Vivekanandapuram Residents Welfare Association.

“Instead of digging up the entire stretch at once, the officials should have undertaken work on smaller stretches. Residents themselves are shovelling mud and laying scaffoldings and planks to give strength to the structures of their houses,” he added.

The contractor began work on the 400m-long drain a month ago but had barely made any progress.

The civic woes have left residents with a sense of déjà vu: The floods of December 2015 caused several sewerage pipes to collapse, leaving craters in the middle of the road and wrecking the stretch.

Sivaswamy Salai is a major bus route linking areas around Mandaveli to other parts of the city. “Even while the work is being undertaken, buses and other heavy vehicles are still using the road. We are trying to convince motorists not to drive heavy vehicles on the road,” Neelakandan added.

A senior corporation official admitted that the work carried out was not up to scratch. “There should have been a setback space between the house and the existing SWD. Instructions have been given to ensure that residents are no longer caused any inconvenience and the work will be planned better. We will take up the collapse with the contractor responsible for the drain and expedite the work,” he said.

The official denied that the depth of the drain was being increased. “The existing depth of 2m will not be changed,” he said.