Team TOIA day after
cyclone Vardah ripped through the city,
Greater Chennai Corporation battled shortage of staff and equipment with most officials staying back home on an
Eid holiday. At
Ripon Buildings, phones ringing frantically in the control room went unanswered, only the department heads and bureaucrats were present.
To tide over the crisis, the corporation had brought 1,750workers, 60 earth movers, 200 trucks and 250 power saws from neighbouring municipalities and panchayats. Workers from the Tiruvallur municipality could be seen clearing the debris-strewn garden opposite Amma Maligai, the Ripon Buildings annexe.
Deputy commissioner (works) KS Kandasamy said more than 4,000 trees were uprooted by the storm and work to remove them started on Tuesday morning.“We could not remove the trees on Monday as the storm kept blowing and our workers were scared to go out,“ he said.
The trees are being taken to landfills in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi besides other compost yards, he said. However, the corporation is yet to make a full assessment of the damage. “After we do that we will ask for Central government funds to cover the infrastructural repair costs.We are eligible for it,“ said Kandasamy after attending a review meeting chaired by chief minister O Panneerselvam. Commissioner D Karthikeyan and municipal administration secretary K Phanindra Reddy were also present.
While the corporation cleared the arterial roads to normalise traffic, residents joined the action and removed fallen trees from the i n t e r i o r ro a d s. Almost any sharp tool, from a sickle to a kitchen knife, was used to cut branches and push them aside. Some even burrowed through the branches.Large trunks though continued to remain and a few resident associations hired private contractors for help as they could not contact the corporation.
An elderly woman in CIT Colony told TOI that she had been calling up several government departments since Monday morning but to no avail. “They have made all the arterial roads navigable but we are unable to get out and access the main road,“ said L Kalavathi. “The residents got to gether and cleared what they could. But another huge tree has fallen across the road now and only a machine can cut into it,“ she said.
Expand
At the review meet, chief minister Panneerselvam instructed officials to restore power supply and bring back normalcy at the earliest. Later, he said 13,578 residents from low lying areas were moved to 104 cyclone relief centres.Also, in Chennai, 15 teams have been set up comprising officials from various service agencies to speed up relief operation in each zone.