Battered. Bruised. Broken.

CHENNAI: The road margins dug up with the soil dumped on the blacktop. Half-built drains filled with storm water and sewage, iron rods protruding dangerously and swarming with mosquitoes. Shabbily covered road cuts that pose threat to motorists. The city that aspires to be Singara Chennai 2.0 now resembles a body on an autopsy table, which is affecting lives and livelihoods. And there is no immediate end in sight to the everyday nightmare for city residents.

The works are being done by the storm water drains department of the Greater Chennai Corporation, Metro Water, Metro Rail and Tangedco among others, all of which have even forced some of the traders in the city to shut shop instead of wringing their hands in despair without any business despite this being the Deepavali season.

R Manivannan, who works at Modern Electronics and Furniture in Purasaiwalkam, said many like him were looking forward to the festival sales to tide over the losses suffered during the pandemic lockdown. “The Metro Rail dug up the road in front of the shop a few months ago. But the work is moving at a snail’s pace, leaving us staring at a huge loss in business ahead of Deepavali,” he said.

According to Rajesh, who owns a medical shop on Wall Tax Road, different departments dug up the road over the last six months, which made it difficult for his regular customers to come to the shop. “We were forced to close the shop,” he said. In Thazhambur in the suburbs, the PSBB Millennium School has not opened after the Ayudha Pooja holidays. Instead, the management has decided to go back to online mode, as the road to the school was dug up for a macro canal. The school is hoping to restart physical classes for students from Class 9 to 12 from Monday, some parents said the administration has promised to resume normal classes after Deepavali holidays.

There is not a single area in the city that are not affected by ongoing works; some, like areas in oft-neglected north Chennai, are worse off. Residents, shopkeepers, drivers and others who have to bear the brunt of the broken state of the city are questioning the authorities for leaving the work to this late with the northeast monsoon is just around the corner. For, if the works are not over despite the repeated assurances by the government, things are only going to get worse.

The never-ending works by Corpn and utilities have left the city in tatters, leaving Chennaiites worried about the monsoon that is just around the corner