CHENNAI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has covered up open stormwater drains (SWD) near an accident-prone zone in Nolambur along the Chennai Bypass Road. A one-foot wall has been built on both sides of the drains and cement slabs have been placed above them along the 700 m stretch where a doctor and her daughter died last month after their two-wheeler skidded into an open drain.
The accident attracted widespread criticism from various quarters. The Madras High Court took suo moto cognizance of this issue and directed NHAI to speed up the work. Accordingly, NHAI has now covered the drains near the accident spot and is devising a plan to cover drains (over 11 km) on both sides of the road connecting Nolambur and Maduravoyal, said a senior highway official, requesting anonymity.
However, drains on other portions of the 32-km Chennai Bypass remain open and no effort has been taken to cover them. This is because NHAI Chennai is yet to receive approval for the said project worth `16 crore from the New Delhi headquarters. Though this bypass road, connecting Tambaram and Puzhal, witnesses around 130 road accidents per year, NHAI has not taken up the proposal on priority, said D Mathivannan, an Ambattur resident, who uses the stretch daily to reach his office in Vadapalani.
In the last two weeks, three accidents were reported on the bypass road, and in one case, a car fell into an open drain, he added. In response, the NHAI official said that when the road was planned in 2008-09, there were no residential settlements along it, and once the project started materialising in 2011, houses and shops were set up.
“The Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines back then did not mandate closed drains. So they were left open. But later, as the number of accidents increased, we wanted them closed. But our headquarters suggested this could be a ‘model’ closed drain project and asked us to revise our proposal,” he added.
A model highway will have shrubs above closed drains, pathways for pedestrians and more cautionary sign boards for safer travel at night.