CHENNAI: It’s a bumpy ride for commuters in the city and its suburbs after many roads have been battered in the recent rains. Deep potholes and damaged roads have increased the risk of accidents. The highways along Kundrathur, Maduravoyal, Poonamallee and Tambaram are among the worst-affected.
Visuals shared by residents show massive potholes that have emerged on the Kundrathur Main Road. The potholes on the Outer Ring Road along Kundrathur are filled with water during rainy season, increasing the risk of fatal accidents.
City-based activist V Pughalventhan, who has filed complaints with senior authorities about the bad road conditions, said the residents’ demand for re-laying the road in Kundrathur has been pending for long. “I have raised many complaints with the officials directly.
But no action has been taken yet,” he said. The Poonamallee High Road stretch along Poonamallee, Redhills Road at Retteri Junction and roads such as Thiruvottiyur High Road, Ennore High Road and Wall Tax Road inside the city are also battered in the recent rains.
A senior official with the Highways Department said certain stretches of highways are normally damaged and laid again in frequent intervals. But this time the re-laying was delayed due to the pandemic. “Works have already begun to fix the bad roads,” said an official. Concerning roads inside the City Corporation limits, an official with the Works department said funds had been sanctioned to re-lay roads under Chennai Mega City Development Mission (CMCDM).
“The works are in progress and this will address the bad roads problem in major roads of the city, especially the ones in Thiruvottiyur and Madhavaram,” the official said. The official added that, apart from this, the civic body was renovating the Bus Route Roads under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Funds (TURIF).
