Close watch being kept on 146 flood-prone spots in Madurai city

Madurai Corporation is maintaining a close watch on 146 places identified as flood-prone across five zones in the city.

A statement said that the city administration has set up round-the-clock control room through which people can lodge complaints about rain-related issues over 78716-61787. The statement said that 60 km of 16 channels criss-crossing the city had been cleared of all the blocks to ensure free flow of rainwater during the northeast monsoon.

The work of desilting the remaining portion of 1.58 km of channels is under way.

The Corporation has engaged contractors to desilt the channels at a cost of ₹2.31 crore.

Similarly, the Water Resources Department has taken up desilting the supply channels of Karisalkulam tank, Chintamani tank and Kiruthumal channel.

The Corporation has made an amphibian approach using mini robot vehicles to remove the garbage and plastic waste from the channels.

Using this new approach, some 3,000 metres of channels has been desilted and removed garbage dumped into the channels. Besides, the heaps of soil and plastic wastes dumped into them were removed, the statement said.

The urban local body has kept ready a range of machineries to meet any eventuality caused during the monsoon.

It has got backhole loaders, skid steer loaders, mini excavators, suction lorries, jet rodding machines, super suckers and power sucker.