CHENNAI:Residents of Selaiyur and Chitlapakkam are concerned over sinking of main sewer lines on Velachery Main Road as part of the Underground sewerage project of Tambaram Municipality.
At the Camp Road junction, workers were seen completing a manhole and then filling up the dug up portion. Enquiries revealed that they were part of the main line work of the sewerage project in its tail-end areas.
The main carriageway was dug up for the same, workers said. According to members of civic groups at Selaiyur of Tambaram Municipality and also Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat, they were worried about the work that was being executed at Camp Road Junction and also on the 100 feet road leading to their localities.
According to them, the Velachery Main Road is being widened uniformly from end to end all along from Saidapet to East Tambaram via Velachery, Pallikaranai and Medavakkam. While work was still on in some stretches, in some other areas like Selaiyur and East Tambaram, the road remains very narrow.
“The road is yet to be widened and already work on sinking the main sewers has started. What will happen if there is a pipeline burst or any other technical snag once the road is widened. Secondly, the State government has sanctioned `96 crore to create cut and cover storm water drains to carry rain water during the monsoon. Once that is implemented, it will make it even more difficult to attend to faults,” residents said.
They said that unlike Chennai city, it was not possible for residents in the suburban areas to air their grievances when they notice any work that was not being carried out properly. Chennai Metrowater regularly conducted open house meetings and there were local offices of Chennai Corporation in its wards.
In the absence of a coordinated approach between the Departments of Municipal Administration and Water Supply, Highways and Public Works while executing massive urban infrastructure development projects, such issues would remain unresolved they said.
When the scheme was first started, Tambaram Municipality did convene grievance meetings, but they are no longer held. They recalled that similarly on Mudichur Road, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board sank new pipelines as part of its Water Supply Improvement Scheme to Tambaram just before the road was widened and just as they feared, attending to problems in the underground pipelines posed a challenge.
Official sources said that even in Chennai Corporation limits, the main sewers were sunk underground and that during a snag, there was no necessity to dig up the entire road. The creation of manholes was essentially for this and allayed residents’ fears over problems that might come up later.