Lakhs spent on street name boards in Madipakkam, but none visible

According to a reply given by the civic body under RTI, officials of Perungudi zone has claimed to have spent Rs 25.26 lakh to install street name boards at several locations in Madipakkam locality from 2013 to 2019.

The civic body has also spent Rs 9.53 lakh to install similar boards on first to eleventh streets in Anna Nagar, Dr Ramamurthy Nagar, Senthil Nagar, Myilai Kapaleeswarar Nagar and other streets in division 188 in Madipakkam. However, a field visit by DT Next has revealed that several streets in Anna Nagar do not have street name boards as claimed in the reply. In most of these places, streets names were found written on the walls using yellow and black paint.

“Almost 10 years after annexing the locality with the Greater Chennai Corporation, street name boards are yet to be installed in the area. Lakshmi Nagar, Anna Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Rajalakshmi Nagar, Vishal Nagar and other areas do not have street name boards,” said GM Shankar, a resident of Madipakkam.

In other parts of the city, the names of the streets are displayed on boards installed at the entrances of streets. These boards are made of stainless steel with retro-reflective sheets to ensure that they are visible in the night as well.

“In the RTI reply, the civic body claimed that it had spent money and installed street name boards. But when I sent a complaint requesting them to install name boards, the officials gave a reply assuring budget allocation for it during 2020-2021. With that reply, they admitted that the street boards never were installed. There is a scam which has taken place over the years,” he alleged.

However, Perungudi zonal officer S Baskaran denied the allegations, and said that the street name boards would be installed during the coming financial year. “We have installed street name boards in some of the streets. We will install boards in other streets in a phased manner,” he added.