Chennai: People no more fear of the monsoon rains bringing in floods to the State as the DMK government had completed so many flood mitigation work, including the desilting of water bodies and the laying a 876 km long storm water drainage system, since it assumed office and had gained their confidence, Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Saturday.
Ministers, local body representatives and the officers and staff of the civic bodies had been out in the field with the people preventing a disaster brought by the rains and the people were aware that the Dravidian Model government would not let them suffer in any way, Stalin said in a message on social media platform X.
He said that days when rain meant floods were gone as the government had done everything needed to avert disasters that the monsoons earlier brought to Chennai and other places, he said.
Minister for Finance and Human Resources Thangam Thennarasu reviewed the preparedness of the electricity department in handling the situation arising out of heavy rains with the top engineers through video conference when he was told that there was enough spare material to meet any eventuality.
Among the stocks kept ready were 3,01,817 spare lamp posts, 12,600 km long electric wires, 18,008 transformers and other essential paraphernalia to ensure uninterrupted supply of power during the rains, the meeting was told.
Even otherwise, 9,95,945 special maintenance works were taken up between July 19 and October 31, based on the guidance of the Chief Minister, for proper upkeep of the electricity supply system during the rains and among them were maintenance of 1348 substations.
In Chennai, 4,638 pillar boxes were placed on elevated platforms, whose height was raised by one metre, and 4,746 RMUs were fixed ahead of the monsoon that began on October 21, bringing copious rains to various districts.
The minister also held a detailed review with the engineers in charge of the districts that had been orange and yellow alerts on preventing floods and the monsoon is expected to bring more rains to the State till November 6.
Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram district have been issued orange warning and the districts of Madurai, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Tiruppur, Erode, Theni and Dindigul had been issued yellow warning.
The minister also gave a set of instructions to the electricity board officials on preventing disasters caused by the rains, which include assigning engineers round the clock in coordination with the State disaster management department and also working in coordination with the district collectors.
Among the other instructions were one on keeping tree cutting and other safety equipment ready, ensuring the services of JCBs and other machinery if necessary by speaking to the owners and also keeping their telephone numbers ready for reference.
While restoring power supply in the event of blackouts, hospitals, water supply connections, government offices, banks and mobile towers should be given priority and accommodation should be arranged for officials involved in flood mitigation work to stay, the department was told.
