Poor SWD desilting: GCC to make list of erring contractors

According to a Corporation source, the further decision on whether to take action against the contractors concerned will be made once the list is prepared and submitted to the senior officials.

The civic body, a few weeks before the onset of the northeast monsoon, had desilted the drains across the city at a cost of more than Rs 9 crore.

“Some contractors failed to desilt the drains properly, especially in T Nagar. Also, the contractors, who were given desilting of Mambalam Canal would face action,” the source said.

During the heavy rains, major roads, including Usman Road, GN Chetty Road and Venkataramana Road, were heavily flooded, causing severe hardships to the residents. Poor implementation of smart city mission and poor desilting of stormwater drains have been cited as reasons. Chief Minister MK Stalin also said that action would be taken against officials concerned.

The source also pointed out the poor designing of stormwater drains, which made desilting difficult. “Presently, there are manholes every five metres. Due to this, desilting can be only done for one metre from a manhole. We had to break the top of the stormwater drains wherever clogging occurred,” an official said.

After learning a lesson from the November floods, the civic body has decided to widen the drains and install manholes every two metres.

The civic body had to intentionally flood Madley subway to drain floodwater from West Mambalam. This was mainly due to the improper desilting of stormwater drains that carries water from the locality.