Road turned into river
Students cross the flooded Raja Street near Ganapathy in the city on Tuesday.For an hour on Tuesday afternoon, Raja Street, which connects Sanganur Road with Sathyamangalam Road, looked like a river in spate. About an hour’s heavy rain brought water from nearly 10 surrounding areas to this stretch and threatened to flood houses and schools.Shopkeepers braced for the regular monsoon event of flooding and school students held each other’s hands to wade safely through the fast flowing rain water. “Just 30 minutes of heavy rain is enough to cause this problem that chokes traffic,” says I. Imdad, a shop owner. “Water rises from the storm water drains also and gets into houses that are at the road level.” S. Sabaresan, a Standard VII student of a Government school on this road, says the students have no other option but to endure this problem.Coimbatore Corporation councillor of ward 61 P. Rajkumar says that because the road takes the form of a gradient, water from Kannappa Nagar, Sanganur, Sanganur Road, Narayanaswamy Layout, Kamarajapuram, Deivanayaki Nagar, Jayaprakash Nagar, Ganesh Layout, Kannan Nagar and a few cross roads enter Raja Street.From here, water goes in two directions – towards Sivasakthi Nagar through a storm water drain and to a canal. The construction of the storm water drain at Rs.10 lakh has helped in reducing the duration of flooding and not eliminating it. “Instead of an hour, water drains in about half-an-hour,” he says.But, better drains are needed to divert water instead of letting it enter this street, he points out.
