CHENNAI: Many major roads in the interior and exterior parts of the city including Sardar Patel Road and Kamarajar Salai are set to be re-laid as the city corporation has got a massive funding sanction amounting to about `350 crore totally under various schemes. ‘‘The age of interior roads are five years while the main roads like the Bus Route Roads (BRR) is three years. Contractors have been finalized and work will begin immediately after monsoon,’’ said an official with the Special Projects Department of the Corporation.
Under the Chennai Mega City Development Mission (CMCDM) funds, `200 crore have been sanctioned to re-lay roads in extended areas like Perungudi, Madhavaram, Manali and Thiruvottriyur. ‘‘A total of 823 roads have been identified in the extended areas. Roads will be relaid wherever they are in the worst condition, while road cuts will be attended for fault rectification,’’ added the official.
Apart from this, 500 interior roads that are to be relaid have been identified in the city limits which includes core areas like Nungambakkam, Kodambakkam, Anna Nagar and other areas in North Chennai. For this, a total of `70 crore have been allocated and the work has kicked off in various phases with relaying happening in some major roads like Uthamar Gandhi Salai in Nungambakkam and Cemetery Road in Royapuram.
Meanwhile, under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Project (TURIP) funds, `70 crore have been sanctioned to relay 60 Bus Route Roads (BRR) in the city. There are a total of 304 BRR to a length of 222 kilometres. Some of the BRR include Velachery Main Road, Basin Bridge Road, Elephant Gate Road, Anna Nagar second and fourth avenue among roads in other major areas.
Though the civic body has relaid roads recently, the contractors mostly did not adhere to the norms specified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and Indian Roads Congress. As per MORTH norms, wherever the roads are damaged, the spot has to be dug up and first a 40 mm thick Compacted Bituminous Concrete (CBC) has to be laid following which the layer is strengthened using 50 mm Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM), a binder used for roads accommodating heavy motor vehicles (HMV).
Only after this, the hot mix of Asphalt has to be laid. As per the norms, all these procedures are an overnight process so that vehicular movement can resume in the morning. But in most cases, like the Cemetery Road which was relaid last month, a new layer of asphalt was laid on an existing layer of Asphalt, in clear violation of the norms. This hasty relaying in turn results in roads coming off during rains. Corporation officials, however, said contractors will be monitored by local engineers and strict action will be taken if violations are found in road relaying.
