Bad road irks commuters, residents as Citizen Connect: Corpn yet to resume project even after 15 months

The residents of Sixth Avenue in Anna Nagar are irked over the non-completion of the road project even fifteen months after the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) laid the first layer of the 300-metre road works. The work was undertaken at an estimated cost of Rs 90 lakh.

“It’s been more than a year since the road (adjacent to 20th Main Road) was completely damaged. The civic body cleared the encroachments along the road and started laying it, only to stop in the middle of the project,” said a resident.

She added that when they cleared the encroachments, the civic body faced many legal hurdles. But the issues were sorted out, and except with few residents and a religious institution in the area, the encroachments were removed.

“The road was not at all commutable. Some residents waited for the Corporation to start the project, which was the first layer filled with blue metals. After that, they went to court to stall the work,” said, P Suresh, a resident of Sixth Avenue.

When DT Next contacted a senior engineering official in Zone 8 of GCC, he said, “We have faced many hurdles while clearing the encroachments. Many residents have filed cases and stalled the road works. But because we have documents proving that they encroached the road while building their homes and commercial complexes, their contentions case didn’t stand in court. After that, we started the work. It is being done by Bus Route Roads (BRR) department ofthe Corporation.”

Playing down the issue of delay, a BRR official said, “After clearing the encroachments, the road was widened and we have carried out the preliminary works of the project. The underground sewage line along the road had connectivity issues. That work has been going on, which delayed the road work.”

Explaining the project, the official added that the work on the 300-metre road in Sixth Avenue is being carried out at a cost of around Rs 90 lakh, and assured that they would finish the work next month. “We have already cleared the debris and stocked the blue metals to carry out the work. We are waiting for the sewage line work to be finished,” the official said.