Subways in the city are also in a bad shape due to poor maintenance
Pantheon road was one of the newly laid bus route roads under the corporation's 194 BRR project. Though officials maintain that quality was not compromised but a large pothole in the middle of road speaks for itself. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Water stagnation is but one component of the rain damage suffered by the city. The number of broken roads in Chennai is increasing by the day and is set to compound if the potential threat of a second spell of rainfall materialises.
Chennai Corporation maintains that the re-laid roads under its 194 Bus Route Road project has stood the rain test and has not been damaged. But the reality is different.
For example, Pantheon Road, which was one among the 194 roads relaid recently, has a more than 30 cm wide crater in the middle of the road.
M. Gurunath, a frequent user of the road, suffered minor injuries after he rode his bike into the crater Thursday evening. “I was following a bus and I did not think that there would be a large pothole in the centre of the road. Luckily, I was not hurt badly,” he said.
If that is the case with the Corporation, the Highways department maintained Anna Salai, the artery that carries the chunk of city’s vehicular traffic, is so badly damaged in areas like Teynampet, Guindy and Nandanam, that riding becomes a herculean task for two-wheeler riders.
J. Sathish Baskaran, a regular on the stretch, said wide craters had formed on the road. “If there is rainfall and water floods over the potholes, then motorists will be at risk of falling down,” he said.
A portion of the Mount-Poonamallee High Road, another crucial highway, which was not re-laid for the Global Investors Meet have started to peel off. In fact, there is no motorable tract remaining at the intersection before the Porur junction. It is so bad that large and light vehicles tread over it as if they were trying to cross abridge of wooden planks, causing traffic hold ups.
Subways in the city are also in a bad shape due to poor maintenance. The Palavanthangal and Thillai Ganga Nagar subways, both maintained by the Highways department, are but two examples of the state of affairs.
The former has two, two-inch deep potholes, at its centre. D. Nagarajan, a commuter and Nanganallur resident told DC that it was impossible to identify the pothole as water has filled up the central portion of the subway. The TG Nagar subway is no different as motorists struggle to negotiate its slippery surface on a daily basis.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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