City in Shambles when it rains

Just an hour’s heavy rain is enough to expose how vulnerable the city is to flooding. Subways get flooded and this leads to flyovers getting choked with traffic. Every year, monsoon exposes the faulty storm water drain across the city. Instances of water logging and the resultant traffic snarls reveal that the lessons during the downpour last November have not been learnt.

The Coimbatore Corporation says a separate scheme for storm water drains under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission will provide a lasting solution.

But, it will take at least three to five years for implementation. This implies that the city will have to live with the problem if no temporary measure is taken to eliminate water stagnation that seems to worsen with every monsoon.

The subway under the Avanashi Road flyover is a source of frustration for the administration. Heavy rain last week flooded the subway used by autorickshaws and two-wheelers. Police recently have begun efforts to make these vehicles use the subway to reduce congestion on the flyover. Following orders from District Collector Neeraj Mittal, the concrete surface in the subway was re-laid and lights were installed. But, water stagnation has defeated these efforts.

The underpass near Kikani school is already providing indications of the flooding to come. There has not been much trouble at the Lanka Corner underpass, but there is no guarantee that flooding will not happen. All the underpasses that connect the eastern part of the city with the west seem to be rain water collection points because of the lack of a good drainage. Another problem spot is the Lawley Road junction where heavy rain leads to sewerage bursts.

Mayor R. Venkatachalam admits that poor storm water drains are turning into a major problem. “We have asked the consultant to speed up the process of preparing the project for storm water drains. We admit that heavy rain calls for special efforts to tackle the problem.”

Regular users of the Avanashi Road Flyover say driving on it is very frustrating for about two hours from 6 p.m. Meanwhile, Coimbatore MP K. Subbarayan has called for constituting an experts team to study the condition of the flyover.

He told presspersons on Tuesday: “The parapet is weak and the flyover’s condition poses risk to people, especially when there is heavy volume of traffic.” The flooding of subways and underpasses splits the city into two, with each side remaining cut off from the other for long periods, he pointed out.

Referring to water stagnation on main roads, he said remedial measures should be taken up on a large scale as the current situation was detrimental to the growth of an industrial region.

In a release on Wednesday, State secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party G.K.S. Selvakumar, called for immediate steps to prevent flooding. Rain had exposed the inadequate infrastructure in the city, he said.