Civic issues not rectified at South Cooum River road in Pudupet

CHENNAI: For over a year, the South Cooum River road in Pudupet remains neglected for several civic issues, including road relaying, sewage stagnation, and construction waste dumped on the street.

Residents said that the nearby streets and roads are repaid, however, despite multiple complaints raised to the city corporation, no action has been taken.

"The road damage has been a perennial issue in the area, last year the corporation laid a road to the adjacent road to our street. When asked by the assistant engineer the issue in the street had not been addressed for a long time. The official denied and stated that the contract for a few roads has been issued, and they commenced the road. Also ensured that this road will be repaid, and funds allocated for the same," said Kaveri (name changed), a resident of South Cooum River road.

Local residents stated that whenever a complaint or enquiry raised to the civic body claims that the government has allocated funds to relay roads in the city, the works will be carried out soon. However, it continues to delay for no reason, and behaves rudely to the public. The Corporation officials are lethargic, they are not bothered to rectify the civic issue in the area.

"As no steps were taken by the zonal officers, we raised an online complaint of the Chennai Corporation to relay roads. I received a message stating that the complaint has been addressed and rectified but it was not. I tried through helpline, mobile app, social media, no action was taken till data, " added Kaveri.

Though the city corporation constructed a storm water drain in the area, it is filled with debris and plastic waste that is not cleared for a long time. It resulted in knee-deep water stagnation as the excess water entered the street during the monsoon.

In addition, there are various civic issues that remain unnoticed in the South Cooum River road. "There is an apartment nearby, people throw away used liquor bottles and construction materials on the road that remains unclean for months. If there is any sewage issue in the apartment it flows and stagnates in the street, due to this the entire road looks messy, " said K Saravanan, another resident.

When contacted ward 63 councillor S Rajasekaran stated that the road relaying works has been carried out in various streets. Also, we have been removing encroachments on the road parallelly. "In the next package, many roads including South Cooum River road have been included, for which fund allocated for the same. The work is expected to be started at the earliest," said the ward member.