CHENNAI: With the onset of the northeast monsoon, the residents are worried about the prospect of water entering homes and flooding streets due to the rising height of roads and pending road work. The corporation maintains 461 bus route roads to a length of 387 km and 34,640 interior roads for 5,270 km. Since June, the corporation has undertaken 11,248 road work on 1,806 km at `1,030 crore. According to the officials, work on more than 400 of these roads is over and the rest will be completed soon.
In Manapakkam and Nesapakkam, where there were complaints of battered roads, work is over on the main routes, but work on the interior roads is yet to be taken up, “Ramapuram High Road used to be commuter’s nightmare. Corporation has completed this stretch but hasn’t started work on interior road,” rued S Ganapathy, a resident of Valasaravakkam.
In extended areas, road work is delayed due to ongoing works undertaken by other departments. like the metro board and electricity board. Residents of Saravanan Nagar in Perungudi are irked by the poor condition of the corporation road leading to their area. Lorries carrying garbage to the Perungudi dump yard also use this road, thus damaging the battered roads even more.
“Metro board work is moving at a slow pace. As a result, roads are in poor condition for an extended period,” said N Ramcharan, a resident of Saravanan Nagar. Meanwhile, activists claim that most of the roads that are being relaid are not milled properly. Jayaram Venkatesan, an activist, said that in many places height of the road has increased and this poses a serious threat.
“Contractors are not milling the roads properly. Following the main routes, the height of interior roads has also increased and houses in low-lying areas get inundated during rains. Corporations should maintain a standard height of roads,” he added.
Out of 2,955 road cuts in the last six months by other departments in extended areas and drain work in core city areas, 1,967 roads were handed over to the corporation for relaying. G S Sameeran, Joint Commissioner for Works, GCC told TNIE, “90% of road cuts have been restored, the rest of the work will be completed soon. Any complaints will be looked into and addressed immediately.”