Waterlogging woes pour into Chennai Corporation control room

Chennai: Residents of Chennai, suffering from waterlogging for the past two days, began dialling the ‘monsoon control room’ at Ripon buildings, the city civic headquarters, for relief.  There was a sharp rise in the number of trees falling and electrical short circuit related complaints.

The fresh spells of rain on Wednesday made life even difficult for Chennaiites.

The control room, which started functioning from last week, received a series of complaints ranging from waterlogging to fallen trees and faulty streetlights. The city also saw garbage and debris piling up due to collection being hampered by the continuous rain of Wednesday.

To tackle the situation and assuage the concerned citizens, Greater Chennai Corporation officials and nodal officers were seen taking turns attending to waterlogging complaint calls and started issuing detailed press releases putting forth their point view. But the public ire was more.

“The control room is working on a 24 hour basis to hear rain-related complaints from the public. We have released emergency phone numbers and WhatsApp numbers”, said a corporation official.

On Wednesday (until evening) more than 123 complaints were received through the emergency numbers exclusively set up for disaster control and 320 complaints received through 1913 toll-free number.  “Of the total complaints received, the majority of them was related to waterlogging. The major number of the complaints was rectified and further awaiting action”, added the official.

The Traffic conditions also got worse with vehicles plying at snail's pace right through the city. As many as 31 spots in Chennai recorded uprooting of trees and in some cases, the branches were also pruned. Teynampet zone saw the maximum number of uprooted trees in eight locations. Anna Nagar and Ambattur were choked with traffic as more trees fell in the area.

Besides attending to monsoon woes, the corporation also removed 5,792 metric tonnes of garbage on Wednesday, which is little over the daily collection of around 5200 - 5400 MT. Of Wednesday;s waste collection, 2,947.6 MT had been dumped in Kodungaiyur and another 2,844.7 MT at Perungudi dump yards.

To ensure the free flow of canals, the corporation also removed the trash and debris along Cooum river. “Aluminium mesh has been installed at various points along the river course and the debris is periodically removed. Additional mesh will be installed in 6 more spots”,a press release from corporation said.