‘Contractors of stormwater drain should be technical expertise’

CHENNAI: Even as the Greater Chennai Corporation is carrying out construction of stormwater drains across Chennai at thousands of crore rupees, councillors requested the civic body to impart technical knowledge to the contractors, who are carrying out the works.

During the zero hour at the city council meeting, V Kavi Ganesh, councillor from ward 12, pointed out that the earlier government failed to hear the opinion of the residents while implementing the stormwater drain projects. "Chennai Corporation should concentrate on ground level studies while implementing the projects," he said.

He added that most of the contractors do not possess technical knowledge to implement the drain projects. The contractors should be equipped with technical knowledge, he urged.

Replying to Kavi Ganesh, Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi assured that suggestions of the residents and councillors will be incorporated if possible.

Raja Anbazhagan (ward 141) urged the civic body to remove a block in Mambalam Canal citing that the block will impede flow of water from stormwater drain in T Nagar.

"After winning stormwater drain project tenders, big contractors tend to give works to sub-contractors. The civic body has to verify whether the sub-contractors are qualified or not, " K Kannan (ward 138), said.

Apart from the stormwater drains, several councillors pointed out the lack of coordination between Chennai Corporation, Metrowater and other agencies.

Kannan added that people come with several problems pertaining to the electricity department, Metrowater and others. "To address all kinds of the issues, committees should be formed to coordinate, " he said.

Replying to the demand, Mayor R Priya said a meeting with Metrowater senior officials will be organised where councillors can raise their problems.

Rani Ravichandran of ward 102 requested the civic body to relax setback norms while allowing construction of houses in less than 1,200 sqft as the economically weaker people could not build houses.

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