Has relaying roads in Chennai served the purpose?
Under many schemes, as many as 2051 roads out of a total of 3273 roads in Chennai were re-laid last year. An amount of Rs 401.58 cr has been spent on this important work. Has it served the purpose?
The bitter fact is that there are many complaints about the damaged roads even now. It is not easy to drive along the interior roads near Kamarajar Salai in Virugambakkam in Chennai. In 2023, one portion of the Thangal Erikarai Street was laid towards Mettupakkam but the road stretch near the electric crematorium in Virugambakkam towards Koyambedu was not laid. In the rains, this road becomes mucky and ridden with potholes etc. As a result, the navigation would be very difficult here in the heavy traffic. Not only this, open dumping of waste on the roadside has been creating huge issues too. This was mentioned by a young resident here.
As on 30th of December, under the State Finance Corporation or SFC, out of 1188 bus route roads or BRR and interior route roads or IRR were taken up for relaying under the cost of Rs 150 cr. Point is that work on 1076 roads have been completed by the GCC. Work regarding relaying 29 roads has been going on and 39 have been planned and 44 have been cancelled.
Under the NSMT or Nagarpura Salaigal Membattu Thittam, as many as 1039 roads have been taken up at the cost of R 118.91 cr. Work has been completed in 528 roads and work has been going on in 126 roads. Work has not been taken up by GCC on 383 roads and 2 roads have been dropped.
Under TURIF or TN Urban Road Infrastructure Fund, as many as 1046 roads for Rs 132.67 crores have been taken up by the GCC and work on 47 roads have been completed. Work has been going on in 146 roads and work has not been taken up in 453 roads
It was brought to light by a resident from Saligramam that BRR and IRR near areas close to ongoing CMRL work have been worse affected. One resident from Nanganallur in south Chennai spoke about how a part of Thillai Ganga Nagar road was affected due to heavy vehicles diverted (because of CMRL`s work that has been going on the main road).
