Rs 102cr road works this week: Mayor Arterial As Well As Interior Rds In All 10 Corporation Zones Will Be Relaid

Rs 102cr road works this week: Mayor

Arterial As Well As Interior Rds In All 10 Corporation Zones Will Be Relaid

Julie Mariappan | TNN , toi 15/06/2010, page no.3, chennai

Chennai: Acknowledging the hardships that motorists and pedestrians are put through in the city, the Chennai Corporation has decided to spend Rs 102 crore on relaying roads — arterial as well as interior — in all its 10 zones.
“The work will start this week. Tenders have already been floated for some of the major roads,” mayor M Subramanian told TOI on Monday.
Many of the roads in the city are in a mess today, thanks to frequent digging by telecom majors and government agencies like Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to lay cables and pipelines. The motorists have meagre space available near medians. All is not well on the interior roads too.
Work orders have been given to contractors to take up works on Luz Church Road, P S Kumarasamy Salai, Venkatakrishna Road, R K Mutt Road, N S K Salai (Arcot Road), Ramapuram Main Road, Kamarajar Salai, Esplanade Road, S N Chetty Street, Rajamuthiah Salai and Central Avenue in MKB Nagar. Zonal officials and the bus route department are now finalising tenders for other roads.
“The recent rains triggered by Cyclone Laila left many of the roads completely battered. Anna Main Road in Ashok Nagar is a telling example of the official apathy,” said V Gopalakrishnan, a civic activist. The road was dug up for laying TNEB cables, subsequently followed by CMWSSB’s pipeline-laying work six months ago. But their staff never turned up to restore the road, despite several complaints, he said.
Devanathan Street in Mylapore, R K Mutt Road in Mandaveli, P T Rajan Salai in K K Nagar, St Mary’s Road in Alwarpet repeatedly bear the brunt of frequent digging by various agencies. While corporation offices are flooded with dozens of applications from these agencies seeking permission to dig the roads, the completion certificates are always delayed.
“It takes them a couple of months to satisfy themselves that the work they have done is complete, so the completion certificate is always delayed. Without the certificate, we cannot relay the roads,” a source in the corporation said. It is common for departments to cut the roads during mid-year as the corporation does not permit them to do so after September, when the monsoon is about to set in.

LEFT IN THE LURCH: Firms that dig up roads delay giving completion certificates to the corporation without which the local body can’t begin relaying of roads