Chennai: Two monsoons have passed, but the arterial stormwater drain project at Ambattur still remains in the balance. The irregularities in the construction have turned irksome to residents raising multiple complaints about the whole project.
The stormwater drainage project, which is meant to carry the excess water and help escape flooding, is turned a bane to the residents who are suffering the water crisis. According to residents, drinking water pipelines were often damaged while constructing the drains.
“Forget about the benefit of the stormwater project, it is worsening our lives. The workers often damaged the drinking water pipelines during the construction. They had not even complained to the metro water officials” said V. Dharani Prasad, a resident, adding that it takes a day or two for the metro water officials to fix the damage.
“We are forced to buy water,” Dharani Prasad lamented. There were also complaints about the damage in sewage pipes, during the construction. “Sewage water gets stagnated in the storm water canals, due to the damage in the pipes.
They act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and is a hazard to public health,” said J. Kumar of TNHB Colony. Residents of the zone who faced the wrath of floods in December 2015 are now worried that the houses would be flooded. A senior official from the Ambattur zonal office said,
“Seventy per cent of the two-year-old drain project is completed. We will try to complete it before the commencement of the monsoon this year.”
