Subsequently, a complaint was filed with the local police along with a technical report.
Red Hills lake from above
Chennai: Detonation of the Nandivaram-Guduvancherry tank wall by miscreants was what that caused flooding at Urapakkam and neighbouring areas, according to public works department officials.
“We have identified three breaches of width 70 m, 40 m and 50 m on the wall. All of these had occurred at a point where human intervention is possible,” a top official told DC. “The size of these cracks was all uniform and on first inspection we suspect that a detonating material could have been used, likely a crude bomb,” said the official.
The resultant breach emptied the tank which was brimming and the waters flooded Urapakkam, Mudichur, Varadarajapuram and Mannivakkam. The breach also contributed to the shutdown of GST Road leaving vehicles from southern districts stranded for a couple of days. Though officials were of the opinion that the tank was under the risk of breach, they pointed out that had it occurred naturally, the scale of impact would have been minimal.
“Flood waters would have risen only gradually, meaning rescue teams would have had more time to evacuate people or for that matter, for us to seal the breach,” a senior PWD official said.
Subsequently, a complaint was filed with the local police along with a technical report. At the time of writing, officials said two breaches had been sealed. Interestingly, Kanchipuram district police told DC they have not registered a case yet. “We have received a complaint petition from the Tahsildar, PWD officials and the local people too. But we have not registered any case as we want the PWD to submit a technical report to us,” said a police source.
Local officials, however, confirmed to DC that the police complaint had sufficient technical explanation to suggest that the holding wall was detonated. “We suspect the hand of encroachers and local real estate developers who did not want their property flooded. These are influential people with backing from the ruling party,” an official noted.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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