When a road springs a surprise

Mounds of blue metal and sand have been causing accidents on Third Avenue Main Road.

April 25, 2015 06:25 pm | Updated 06:25 pm IST

View of uncleared sand on the Anna Nagar East near K4 Police Station in Chennai. Photo: M. Vedhan

View of uncleared sand on the Anna Nagar East near K4 Police Station in Chennai. Photo: M. Vedhan

The Third Avenue Main Road, between Anna Nagar police station and Government Peripheral Hospital, has everything that a road should not have: A mound of blue metal next to the median at the traffic junction, an open trench and illegal parking of commercial vehicles.. As a result, motorists taking the right turn to go to New Avadi Road often skid on the pile of blue metal and get injured.

Sadly, traffic policemen attached to the Anna Nagar police station and posted at the junction look on helplessly. In fact, the police station is located opposite the median where the blue metal has been lying abandoned for many days now. Apparently, Chennai Corporation officials had dumped the blue metal to re-lay the damaged portion of the stretch near the junction. “Last week, I almost hit the median after skidding on the blue metal that spilled all over the road. I was lucky but others might not be,” said S.Rakesh, a resident of Villivakkam.

In February last year, the civic body re-laid the 80-feet stretch between the Government Periphery Hospital and Anna Roundtana, a distance of around 1.5 km, after it remained dug-up for more than a year. The Water Resources Department (WRD) of the Public Works Department (PWD) did it to construct a box-type channel to divert excess rainwater from the Otteri Nullah through a link with the Cooum river near Brewery Road in Anna Nagar. The work was aimed at preventing the flooding of the neighbourhood during monsoon. The Rs. 10 crore project was executed by WRD under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. “The stretch between Anna Nagar police station and the ‘T’ junction at New Avadi Road is poorly-lit, making it difficult for motorists to identify the open trench on the stretch at night. The Chennai Corporation should trim the trees and remove all encroachments along the stretch,” said K. Sarala, a resident of Anna Nagar.

In fact, motorists and residents in the neighbourhood welcomed the re-laying of the stretch as they have been using the Third Avenue Main Road and New Avadi Road after key stretches in Anna Nagar have been made one-way for Metro Rail work and the flyover project at Tirumangalam.

The busy stretch is a crucial link for thousands of motoriststo reach the central parts of the city as motorists prefer the Third Avenue Road due to less traffic congestion and more road space compared to PH Road and the 12 Main Road “We will take steps to re-lay the left over portion and remove encroachments on the stretch,” said a Corporation official.

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