Leader of Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday charged the State Highways Department ignored an advisory by the Water Resources Department (WRD) to raise the total height and number of pillars of the newly constructed bridge, which was washed away in the recent floods in Tiruvannamalai district. According to him, the WRD had made the recommendations before the bridge was built so that it could withstand natural calamities like floods.
Interacting with journalists after inspecting the collapsed bridge at Agarampallipattu village near Thandarampattu town, Mr Palaniswami claimed the WRD had given adequate advisory to Highways Department to increase the height of the bridge to a certain level with additional pillars to withstand massive floods and cyclones. However, the Highways Department went ahead with its plan and constructed the bridge without any proper research on previous flood patterns in the river. “Collapse of the new bridge was the result of carelessness of the ruling DMK government in undertaking public projects. As a result, hard earned taxpayers money got washed away in the floods,” he charged.
The Rs 15.90 crore bridge was inaugurated by the Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports, E.V. Velu, on September 2. It was washed away on Tuesday last after release of over two lakh cuses of excess rainwater in Then Pennai river due to rain in the upstream.
Mr. Palaniswami said around 2.40 lakh cusecs of water was released in the river in 1972 after heavy rains in the upstream areas during that time. However, the collapsed building was designed to withstand a discharge of only 54,417 cusecs. “It shows that the Highways Department has not done any in-depth research or study including analysing previous floods in the river, flood patterns and its consequences. It’s a sheer case of negligence of the DMK led government,” he said.
He dismissed a comparison between release of water from Chembarambakkam reservoir near Chennai and Sathanur dam due to excess water discharged from these water bodies resulted in inundation, Mr. Palaniswami said a maximum of 30,000 cuses of water can only be released from Chembarambakkam as against the claim made in the media that over one lakh cusecs were released from the reservoir, resulting in inundation of Chennai in 2015 floods. It was due to excess rainwater from other small waterbodies that got discharged into Adyar river resulting in inundation of Chennai city that time, he said.
Later in the day, Mr. Palaniswami met family members of landslide victims in Tiruvannamalai town. He also handed over a cheque of Rs one lakh to family members of each victim.
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