The Public Works Department says urban drain cleaning is complete while work on major channels continues. Officials aim to finish the remaining work by the end of October.
Puducherry’s Public Works Department has stepped up desilting of stormwater drains ahead of the northeast monsoon. According to figures reported by The Hindu from the department, the city has about 40 km of stormwater drains and rural areas have 319 km of channels. The reported budgets are about 1.99 crore rupees for urban drains and 2.5 crore rupees for rural channels.
Desilting has been completed in the urban Mettuvoikkal and Pallavoikkal drains and the Bharathidasan Nagar channel, which runs through Reddiyarpalayam, Oulgaret, Vazhudhavur and Mudaliarpet. Work continues on the main Uppar, Karuvadikuppam, Shanmughapuram, Gorimedu, Saram and Iyyanar Koil channels. A PWD official told the newspaper that contractors had been asked to speed up and that the department would deploy more workers, machinery and excavators.
The government has also installed high-capacity pumps at seven flood-prone locations, including Venkata Nagar. Officials are paying particular attention to the Uppar channel near a road overbridge under construction in Orleanpet. The official said about half of the desilting from Sithankudi to the channel’s confluence point had been completed and warned that construction could affect rainwater flow at some locations.