COIMBATORE: Residents are disappointed over the failure of the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) to carry out patchwork on damaged roads in residential areas in the city.
Numerous roads, including the major roads across the city have been severely dilapidated due to 24x7 drinking water supply pipeline works, gas pipeline works and underground drainage pipeline (UGD) works, among others and the CCMC started road reparation works across the city about a month ago.
A total of 40 roads, which are 38 km long, are being paved by the corporation at the cost of `26 crore under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Project. However, majority of these roads are located on major routes and people from residential areas have questioned the CCMC about the patchwork for interior roads in the city.
V Baskaran, a resident of Sowripalayam, said, “Paving new roads on major connectivity roads is fine. But the corporation should also think about the issues faced by the people of residential areas while travelling. Majority of the roads in the city are yet to be repaired. While the officials had carried out patchwork on a few portions of the damaged Sowripalayam Road, the concrete mix has caved in the recent rains. The corporation must put bitumen (tar/asphalt) patches on the damaged portions instead of the wet mix as they last longer.”
According to sources, earlier, the CCMC had suggested the people to send photos and locations of the damaged portions of the road across the city through a dedicated WhatsApp number and had even roped in a Bengaluru-based private firm to address the complaints and fix the roads. Even though over 2,000 complaints were received by the civic body, it dropped the plan citing quality issues.
CCMC Commissioner M Prathap told TNIE that CCMC has sent several proposals to the government for relaying a new road instead of fixing portions of the damaged road. “Only small potholes were filled up with wet mix and the bigger ones will be filled with BT (Bitumen). We have already carried out BT patchwork of about Rs 1.5 crore across the city and in addition to that, another set of BT patchworks is being carried out at the cost of Rs 2 crore. The public can share with us the details of the roads where the BT needs patchwork needs to be done,” he added.