Citizen connect: Open sewage on Tambaram-Velachery road unattended for over a year, complain motorists

The area is bustling with infrastructure development activities as most of the people working in the software industry choose to live in the neighbourhood as it is conveniently sandwiched between Tambaram and Sholinganallur, where most of the IT companies are located.

Even as the area is fast developing with requirements being increasingly met, authorities concerned fail to see the small issues that require a day’s work to set things right, said motorists. Many pointed at the open sewerage off the main road in the commercial area, which, according to them, has been unattended for more than a year. The open sewerage is in front of a popular showroom.

Overflow from the sewerage flows on the main road, which remains busy most of the day. Traffic on the road is always on a snail’s pace due to various construction works in progress and motorists invariably step on the wastewater. The overflow goes up to the nearby bus stop, which is always crowded, said Vaishu Kannan, a resident of Medavakkam, who uses the road to go work on her two-wheeler every day.

As the authorities have turned a blind eye on the problem, the shopkeepers on the stretch take it for granted and dump the waste inside the sewer, blocking the flow of sewage further. “With the threat of coronavirus looming on the city, it is best to keep our area clean to prevent the spread of epidemics. Since the open sewerage is at a commercial area on a busy road, it will affect not just people living by but visitors to the various shops and people who pass-by the stretch on vehicles, especially two-wheeler riders,” said Arul Selvam from East Tambaram, who reaches his office on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR) using the stretch.

When contacted, corporation officials said that it is the highways department which is constructing the flyover is responsible for the sewage management as well. However, a highways department official said that sewage lines which were affected due to the ongoing projects would be attended as soon as the flyover is completed.