Installing flood barriers at the metro stations in Chennai - Important details!!
The long delay of installing flood barriers at some metro stations in Chennai would come to an end soon.
Every day, on the phase one network and extension (spanning 54kms) of CMRL or Chennai Metro Rail Limited, about 2,8lakhs to 3lakhs passengers travel is known. It is known that in Chennai there are also other modes of transportation like MTC buses, trains etc. There are some vulnerable locations on this phase one network of CMRL. Bitter fact is that almost every monsoon season, rainwater would trickle down into these metro stations creating issues to amenities like escalators and lifts etc.
The news now is that CMRL has floated bids to install flood barriers in these vulnerable locations at some of the underground metro stations in Chennai. According to an official belonging to CMRL it was clear that 4 years back on a pilot basis CMRL installed floodgates at a few places. These included subways that were linked to entry or exit points in Saidapet, AG-DMS etc and found that rainwater did not enter the metro stations.
In the future, flood gates would be installed at the entry or exit in some underground metro stations like Anna Nagar East, Anna Nagar Tower, Government Estate, Chennai Central, Tondiarpet, AG-DMS, 1000 Lights etc. The official later mentioned that some of the metro stations in phase one extension routes where barriers are needed for lifts have been found out.
It was brought out by the official of CMRL that some lifts were present at the ground levels or street levels and in case of heavy rains elevators would have to be switched off to avoid inundation.
Features of flood barriers:
It is worth mentioning here that the flood barriers are made of aluminium alloy and they would be portable. The flood barriers could be easily lifted and fixed by one or two persons at the metro stations. In about 3 months, the contract for installing the flood barriers would be awarded and the flood barriers would be fixed before the next monsoon season. Though the idea of flood barriers was put forward some years back, the steps are taken now to install them.
