
COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) had handed over control and maintenance of several roads in the city to State Highways (SH) department many years ago. But, the latter failed to maintain them and has left roads dilapidated. Taking note, the CCMC has withdrawn its earlier proposal to hand over ten roads in the city to the SH department for maintenance.
The CCMC has been maintaining a total of 3,236.96 km of roads in 100 wards of the city’s five zones including 2,659.67 km of tar roads, 258.88 km of mud roads and 294.05 km of cement roads. Apart from this, major link roads connecting two national highways or state highways passing through the city are also controlled by SH Department.
Some major link roads in the city, including KNG Pudur Road, Pankaja Mill Road, Nanjundapuram Road, Kurichi Pirivu-Podanur Road, Saradha Mill Road and others were handed over to the SH department, Coimbatore by the civic body for maintenance. The CCMC did this to reduce its fiscal burden in 2021-22.
A few years ago, the CCMC had planned to hand over control of 13 roads extending to a length of 45.9 km in the city to the SH department for maintenance. However, the CCMC has now withdrawn the proposal as the SH department has failed to properly maintain roads already handed over to them in the past. The SH department has cited a lack of funds for their inability to do so.
Sources with the SH department told TNIE that the department sends a list of roads that need to be revamped for every financial year to the state government for funds and approval. However, not all roads get approval and funds are only allotted to a few projects. As a result, SH officials are unable to carry out patchworks and other repairs, they added.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran said, “We had allotted an amount of Rs 120 crore to the SH department for road restoration works as the civic body had been carrying out pipeline works for water supply and UGD projects on roads.
However, the SH department is yet to float tenders for road restoration works using this fund. The SH department should ideally restore damaged roads as soon as we finish our works, but this is not the case. We have consulted SH officials and conducted secretary-level talks to sort the issue. We have also spoke to the concerned minister on the matter.”
“Considering the current situation, we have withdrawn our proposal to hand over maintenance of major link roads in the city to the SH department. We shall maintain those roads ourselves,” he added.
SH department Divisional Engineer (DE) Gnanamurthy told TNIE, “We have received only around Rs 35 crore from CCMC for road restoration works on Kuniyamuthur road. As for road repairs, we cannot repeatedly fix damaged roads if the civic body keeps digging the road citing pipeline leaks as we get funds only once a year. We are restoring dilapidated roads regularly after CCMC completes its works.”