THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recently tarred Thycaud-Elamkom Road near the Police Training College has been dug open for culvert work irking residents and motorists alike. The road, which is being used by hundreds of motorists everyday for daily commute, has been closed to facilitate the construction of a culvert.
“The road was in a pretty bad shape for many months. They tarred the road very recently. But it was dug open again. They could have constructed the culvert before tarring the road. This is a huge inconvenience for people,” said Dinesh K, a resident.
The City Corporation launched the tarring work nearly a month ago. Lack of coordination and unscientific planning are cited as the reasons for the present condition of the road. “Such issues should be seriously taken up by the authorities. They carry out tarring only when the road turns worse and when complaints mount. Such byroads often are neglected and digging them immediately after tarring is unacceptable,” said Raju K, a motorist.
Thycaud ward councillor G Madhavdas said the area had been facing flooding because of blocks in culvert. “It’s a planned work and culvert reconstruction is crucial for addressing the flooding in the area. It can only be cleaned by removing the slabs over the culvert. We didn’t want to delay the tarring so decided to go for the culvert reconstruction work after that,” he said.
An official of the engineering wing under the civic body said there is no lack of coordination in the execution of the work. “We unloaded the metal and we cannot keep it open on the road for long. Hence we did the tarring work first. We are carrying out work worth `27 lakh at Thycaud ward,” said the official.
According to the official, the work would be completed in two weeks. “The work is on and no more tarring is required as the culvert would be closed using slabs. We had to reconstruct the culvert and the casting work of the slabs are ongoing. It would take another two weeks to complete the work,” the official added.