T.Nagar residents complain about storm water drain being used as a dump yard

The residents of Ranganathan Street in T. Nagar, known to attract huge crowds any day, suffer hardship these days as rainwater has stagnated in the incomplete storm water drain.

Also, garbage from the shops is also dumped into the incomplete SWD, say the office-beaters of T. Nagar Residents Welfare Association.

The narrow and crowded street used to get frequently flooded and the Greater Chennai Corporation decided to construct a new and bigger storm water drain.

However, with the lockdown announced from March 24 for COVID-19 prevention measures the contractor has left the work incomplete. Though the State government relaxed the lockdown norms for government projects, the shortage of labour resulted in the work remaining incomplete, officials said.

A senior official of Kodambakkam zone of the Greater Chennai Corporation, which is executing the SWD project, said the frequent damage to the SWD resulting in stagnation of rainwater on Ranganathan Street was posing hardships to the public.

“So it was planned to fully demolish the SWD and build a bigger one. The work has resumed from Monday and would be completed soon,” he said. The SWD would be linked to the Usman Road drains from where the rainwater would be evacuated to T. Nagar canal, he said.