CHENNAI: One of the first FIRs filed by Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2025 throws light on the possible extent of corruption in construction of roads in the city.
On January 6, DVAC special investigative cell (SIC) booked a case against three engineers of Tiruvallur district rural development and panchayati raj department and a road contractor for corruption in laying a 2km road, which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 25 lakh to the government in 2019-20.
The FIR states that assistant engineer M Babu, assistant executive engineer C Parandhaman, and executive engineer M Senthilkumar of Sholavaram block in the district were responsible for strengthening the burial ground road in Vadakkunallur panchayat. A check by state highways divisional engineer revealed that thickness of wet mix macadam (WMM) and bituminous macadam in road laid by contractor AK Sampathkumar fell short by up to 50%.
The samples collected showed that the WMM thickness was 82mm instead of 125mm, and the loss due to this shortage was Rs 3.5 lakh. In the bitumen layers, the contractor was supposed to provide a thickness of 70mm for the road across two layers. While a total of 7,818 sq.m. was supposed to be laid with bitumen, only 50% of it was found, causing a loss of Rs 21.5 lakh.
WMM is the crushed aggregate of gravel and stone dust mixed with water and a binding agent used for the base and sub base layers. Bituminous macadam consists of mineral aggregate and appropriate binders, and is used over WMM for a smooth road surface.
Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of NGO Arappor Iyakkam, which has highlighted such quality issues in roads in Greater Chennai Corporation, said that this is a common modus operandi. “The quality control department of local bodies don’t do a super check and hence this remains unaddressed,” he said.