South Chennai likely to get respite from flooding as Okkiyam Maduvu channel restoration nears completion

The long-standing occupation of inundation successful parts of southbound Chennai is expected to easiness arsenic the task to reconstruct Okkiyam Maduvu, a cardinal floodwater channel, is apt to beryllium completed by the extremity of this month.

The 2.65 km-long transmission connects floodwater from Pallikaranai marshland to the oversea done the confederate information of Buckingham Canal. The purpose to comprehensively reconstruct the channel, astatine a outgo of ₹27 crore, is portion of assorted flood mitigation interventions by the Water Resources Department (WRD).

WRD officials said that portion insignificant works were carried retired successful the past, the transmission has undergone a broad rejuvenation done the project, with a absorption connected susceptible portions.

The width of the channel, which receives surplus h2o from 62 tanks successful the upstream portions of the confederate suburbs, varies from 120 metres to 200 metres successful assorted stretches. To heighten h2o flow, it was widened by astatine slightest 10 metres implicit an 800-metre stretch.

However, the transmission was recovered to beryllium constrictive successful immoderate portions, including adjacent Thangavelu Engineering College and Kannagi Nagar, starring to inundation successful surrounding areas. In its effort to trim flood interaction successful areas similar Pallikaranai, immoderate susceptible portions of the Okkiyam Maduvu were deepened by 2 metres, and astir 2 lakh cubic metres of silt were cleared to boost the flood carrying capableness of the waterway.

“We person truthful acold completed gathering a retaining partition for astir 470 metres retired of the full 520 metres projected successful the project. Neighbouring areas similar Kannagi Nagar person already experienced respite from inundation during the erstwhile monsoon. The five-metre-high retaining wall, built on the channel, has helped forestall breaching,” said an official.

Residents noted that restoration efforts indispensable besides absorption connected semipermanent sustainability and besides enactment groundwater recharge isolated from mitigating floods.

Sathish. G., a nonmigratory of Semmancheri, said the authorities indispensable guarantee that sewage released into the transmission is blocked and integrate a periodic h2o investigating and monitoring system. It tin besides beryllium developed arsenic a nationalist abstraction for residents with bird-attracting vegetation and biodiversity corridors to heighten its ecological value.