Race on to clear drains before monsoon

Extended rain during summer has hampered the effort

With monsoon rains hardly a week away from hitting the Kerala coast, the city Corporation as well as the various departments have been racing against time to clear up the canals and drains in the flood-prone regions in the city.

The uncharacteristically extended rains during the summer has hampered some of these efforts.

After addressing the immediate concerns within the coming week, the engineers of the Corporation and the Irrigation department are scheduled to meet within a month to prepare a detailed estimate of the long-term works to be taken up in the flood-prone regions in the city. This will be submitted to the State government to be considered as a special case for fund allocation in the budget, in a manner similar to Operation Anantha flood mitigation programme that was taken up in the capital in 2015.

Silt removal

One of the ongoing works is the silt removal from a drain that passes under the Ponnara Sreedhar park in Thampanoor. This had come to a halt recently after a 66-Kilo Volt line was partially damaged during the cleaning process. Another major work is the cleaning of the drain that passes under the railway lines.

“During a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary recently, the Irrigation Department officials agreed to take up the work of silt removal from this drain, but they will be able to do this only after there is a reduction in flow. This can happen only after the monsoon. It was last cleaned during Operation Anantha.

If there is a high volume of rainfall in a short period, as had happened recently, this bottleneck area can cause flooding in the Thampanoor region. The waste removal from the rest of the major canals and drains is progressing well,” said a Corporation official.

“We have given a list of drains to be cleared by the various departments within the next week. This work has been progressing. I have also apprised the Minister for Public Works regarding the issues here. He has agreed to chair a meeting within this week,” said Corporation Mayor Arya Rajendran.

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