Citizen Connect: Residents worry over relaying of Kanthan Road without milling

Kanthan Road in Perambur is being resurfaced as it was damaged due to cable and pipeline laying works, but this has made the residents a concerned lot. Residents said that civic authorities are resurfacing the roads without milling it, which is likely to cause water stagnation in the nearby houses.

“No effort has been taken to mill the existing surface of the road despite very clear rulings by the Madras High Court to mill all roads before re-laying them to prevent flooding of the residential areas. The authorities continue to flout the rules and have not milled the road,” said Raghukumar Choodamani, a resident of Perambur.

When residents complained to the civic authorities in this regard, they were told that other streets will be resurfaced after considering this issue. The residents also alleged that the roads are damaged shortly after re-laying due to poor quality of roads.

“The road was damaged during 2015 rain despite being laid a year ago. We lodged complaints and ensured the damaged portion was resurfaced again in 2016. The road was damaged again by 2017 and remains in the same condition till now. This shows the poor quality of work undertaken by the authorities,” said Bala Kumar, another resident.

Despite repeated requests to the officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation to resurface the road only after proper milling, other streets in the area have been laid without milling.

“Authorities said that they only topped up the existing surface with only 2cm of bitumen mix and milling was not needed. There are other roads in Anna Nagar that were raised by 2 cm or less, but they were milled. Why can’t the authorities do the same in our area,” said Chitra, a resident of Perambur. 

When contacted, the assistant engineer of the zone said that the road was completely worn out and damaged due to the digging of service departments’ cable and pipeline laying works, storm water drain construction works. So the roads are being laid without milling.