Chennai roads cut wide open as departments violate Chennai Corporation's order

CHENNAI: Chaos reigns over the city roads, with the Chennai Metro Rail works going on alongside the construction and inter-linking of storm water drains (SWD).

As if the denizens haven’t been harangued enough with pollution, pot-hole riddled roads, traffic diversions and road closures, now they have one more challenge to navigate – road-cut works undertaken by many departments including the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), Tangedco, and other private service providers.

This is despite repeated instructions from the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to the service departments not to dig up the newly re-laid roads for a minimum period of six months to one year until there is an emergency maintenance.

What’s worse is that they fail to re-lay the road after their work is completed.

Though the Corporation takes strict action against departments for violating protocols, several interior roads have potholes, thanks to the shoddy re-lay work of the service departments.

Ram Nagar in Velachery is not only notorious for flooding and waterlogging but the ongoing SWD works have made roads non-motorable.

“When it rains, these stretches are dangerous,” lamented S Pavithra, a mother of two, who recently shifted her house from Ambattur to Ram Nagar.

The civic body has not re-laid roads on Kesaven Street and Kailasam Street in Tondiarpet for over a decade.

These roads were laid in 2021 when the DMK was in power. “Last year, the Corporation dug up the road for SWD work to prevent inundation during the northeast monsoon.

The zonal officials ensured the road was re-laid in March this year, but in 5 months, the Metro Water board dug it up for underground maintenance work. We have no idea what work was done,” fumed R Boopalan, a resident and civic activist in Tondiarpet.

Within three years, these interior roads have been re-laid twice and dug up by the Corporation and Metro Water board. “Kesavan and Kailasam streets are both located near the Government Peripheral Hospital (Chinna Stanley) and government school.

This is one of the arterial roads that connects Old Washermenpet, New Washermenpet, and Korukkupet, and is congested during peak hours.

Due to the shoddy work carried out by the Metro Water board, the road condition is dangerous for commuters and pedestrians,” added Boopalan.

Residents of north Chennai rued that re-laying of a road was often followed by digging it up a few months later by any one of the service departments. Despite submitting multiple petitions to zonal officials and the head office, this continues.

“If they plan to carry out road-cuts, it should be done in advance and not after re-laying the road,” he pointed out. “There is no coordination between the Corporation and service departments especially CMWSSB and Tangedco.”

G Balu, president of People Welfare Association, MGR Nagar in Vyasarpadi, concurred with him, and added: “The Metro Water board had carried out road-cut work on the newly-laid concrete road due to sewage issues in the residential buildings.

As usual, it hasn’t been re-laid properly, and this has led to many accidents on the street.”

Similarly, the newly-laid bus route road at AGS Colony 4th Main Road in Velachery was dug up for sewage maintenance work in May.

After the work was completed, the Metro Water board planned to do patch work with concrete material but residents prevented the re-laying of concrete road.

“The Corporation re-laid the tar road in February and within two months, a service department carried out a road-cut. They should have re-laid the road in tar, instead they were about to put a concrete road.

After several arguments, the work was stopped. That was 3 months ago. The Corporation did not re-lay the road, but as a temporary measure, it has dumped blue metal stone,” explained Geetha Ganesh, a resident in Velachery.

When contacted, a senior official with the GCC said that if the service departments had dug up the newly re-laid road within the minimum period, they should immediately fix it, and also pay double the charge to re-lay the road.

“Many residential areas have problems like power cuts, contaminated water, and damage to sewage pipelines. So, we give permission to the respective department for underground maintenance works. If the approval is delayed, it would affect the normal life of the public. However, permission will be denied for road-cuts if there is no emergency,” he added.