Citizen Connect: Increase in height of roads worries Perambur residents
It leads to inundation during monsoon seasons which is inevitable given the lackadaisical attitude of the contractors and officials.
Level of tar above pavement on Srinivasan Street
CHENNAI: Despite the milling of roads carried out by the local civic body, the height of the road once again has increased at Srinivasan Street in Perambur.
Residents lamented that the overall height of the road has been increased by a couple of inches instead of maintaining the existing height of the road.
“The milling was done but not following the Indian Road Congress specifications. Instead of 40 mm milling, they had only done a shoddy job which is up to 10 mm to 25 mm milling. A layer of wet mix, followed by Bituminous Macadam (BM), Bituminous Concrete (BC), and another layer of BC was put in after multiple complaints raised to the concerned officials that the fine aggregate was ripping apart,” saidC Raghukumar, a civic activist at Perambur. Due to an increase in the road height in the area, some of the houses have been pushed below the surface of the road.
It leads to inundation during monsoon seasons which is inevitable given the lackadaisical attitude of the contractors and officials.
“Inundation across Chennai during monsoon is a man-made disaster. House owners are being pushed to either redevelop their properties or go in for the house lifting services which have now become the most sought-after business, thanks to the flawed policies of our government, “ added Raghu. In the last four months, at least three assistant engineers have changed in Ward 71 of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar (Zone 6). After an AE got transferred four months ago, a new AE took over and the second batch of roads were taken up for resurfacing.
When the locals noticed that they were not adhering to the norms. The residents raised their concerns and said they would escalate the issue if the road level is raised.
After a few days, another batch of roads were taken up for resurfacing and again the quality of work was shoddy. The milling and the first layer of BM they had laid were of substandard quality.
“We escalated our concerns immediately and a few days ago a new AE took over and we raised the complaint to the officer before the onset of northeast monsoon and expressed our frustrations. While he assured us that the height of the road will be maintained there has been no change in the situation,” said another resident.
When contacted Ward 71 Councillor Punithavathi Ethirajan said that the authorities concerned will carry out the works to relay the road in actual level in the area.
