Poor maintenance, mounding garbage, chocked drainage channels and consequent flooding of sewage on the road have collectively made the stretch formed from Polepettai to Terespuram to assuage vehicular traffic along the Great Cotton Road horrible and unmotorable.
To lessen the ever-growing vehicular traffic along the Great Cotton and West Great Cotton Roads by providing an alternative stretch, a road was formed adjacent to the Buckle Channel, the ‘Cooum of Pearl City,’ from Polepettai to Terespuram. Despite stiff resistance from encroachers, then Commissioner of the Corporation Dinesh Oliver Ponraj, formed this road.
Subsequently, vehicular traffic along the Victoria Extension Road, Great Cotton and West Great Cotton Roads came down significantly as vehicle riders started using this newly formed stretch.
“Now, you can see the pathetic condition of this stretch owing to negligence, official apathy and poor maintenance. The entire stretch is in a worst shape. After a trench was dug on the northern side of the road for laying pipes, it was not properly closed and the road was not laid again only to cause frequent accidents, particularly during the night,” said A. Antony Dhanaraj, a saltpan owner.
The sewage overflows in a nauseating fashion in a few places along this road due to chocked drainage channels. At one particular point on the east of the S.S. Pillai Street – the new road junction, a pool of sewage stagnating just in front of two houses has effectively forced the residents to find alternative routes to come out of their houses. Besides the sewerage, the pigs freely roaming around this area worsen the situation.
A senior Corporation official, while admitting about the pathetic condition of the road, said they could go in for repairing or relaying the road only on getting adequate funds. “We’re running short of funds for every development work and hence we cannot take up this exercise,” he said.
