Widened stormwater drains on the Hogenakkal-Tirupattur High Road will be built by the State Highways Department in the coming weeks to prevent inundation in the town during monsoon.
A field inspection by a team of officials of Department of State Highways, which maintains the stretch, to assess the availability of required land for the new stormwater drains was done a few days ago. “For many years, the stretch in Tirupattur town gets inundated due to excess rainwater that get discharged from the lake on the upstream,” K. Murali, Divisional Engineer (DE), State Highways, told The Hindu.
The existing stormwater drain on both sides of the stretch is narrow with around one feet wide. Over the years, most of the drain, which was built by Tirupattur municipality decades ago, got damaged. More than 500 houses, most of them unregulated structures around the lake near Pudhupettai village on the upstream also obstruct free flow of excess rainwater from the lake into the small drains, said officials.
The Hogenakkal-Tirupattur High Road is 107 km long and connects key towns like Pennagaram and Dharmapuri before ending at Tirupattur town. Most trucks, container lorries and trailers from western regions like Tiruppur, Erode, Salem and Coimbatore use the stretch to reach Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Ranipet, Villupuram and Cuddalore. Due to inundation during monsoon, traffic on the stretch come to a standstill for at least four-five hours before municipal officials pump out stagnated water.
The State Highways has, therefore, decided to widen the drain between the lake near Pudhupettai village and Tirupattur town to allow excess water to flow into Adiyur lake. The widened drain will be at least three feet wide and deep with concrete slabs on it to allow pedestrians to use the space as a footpath. A culvert will also be built to discharge excess rainwater across the stretch without affecting the traffic movement.
