Councillor Foils Maduravoyal Residents' Bid to Repair Road

Hundreds of angry residents, various welfare organisations and students joined their hands to repair the Poonamallee- Vanagaram-Koyambedu road.
Councillor Foils Maduravoyal Residents' Bid to Repair Road

CHENNAI:After waiting five years for good roads, hundreds of angry residents, members from various welfare organisations and college students joined their hands on Monday to repair the four-km stretch of Poonamallee- Vanagaram-Koyambedu road.

Public Environment and Awareness Society, Maduravoyal Residents’ Welfare Federation, Aminjikarai Lorry Owners Association and students of Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute, Maduravoyal collected money and brought six loads of wet mixed gravel and tar to repair the battered and bruised roads on the stretch. They alleged that the officials concerned had failed to do their duty.

“The four-lane road, where the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway project was taken up is battered and bruised, giving a tough time to hundreds of residents, school and college goers who use the road. The roads were worn out after the National Highways Authority of India sank pillars,” said S Yuvaraj, president, Public Environment and Awarenesss Society.

“The project has remained in limbo for four years because of want of environment clearance from the PWD. We have been raising this issue since then, but now we have lost our patience and a month ago, we decided to collect funds and repair the road to save the lives of hundreds of road users,” Yuvaraj added.

B Varadarajan, president, Maduravoyal Residents’ Welfare Federation said, “The ward councillor interfered and stopped us, they brought vehicles and reloaded all the wet mix gravel that we unloaded on the road to do patch work. They spoiled our initiative.”

Meanwhile a senior official, NHAI said they would do the patch work within a week.

“The state government has stopped the work.  Instead of protesting against them to resume the stalled work, residents are showing anger on us, which is unnecessary. What have they been doing all these years?” the official asked.

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