On Marudhamalai Road stands white metal poles that are supposed to hold lamps. The poles from Lawley Road Junction to Vadavalli stand stretching arms but there are no lights.
The stretch of Thadagam Road from ‘Paal Company’ (milk cooperative federation office) to Lawley Road Junction is no different.
Feverish pace
The Corporation started the work three months ahead of the declaration of local body polls at a feverish pace but is yet to complete the work though it had overshot the deadline by a month or so.
When the civic body started the work, it carried out the work night and day - the earth movers moved around at night to move the stones at median and dug earth to pour concrete, says Vadavalli resident and consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon.
The pace at which it carried out the work suggested that the people who used the road could use a well-lit Marudhamalai Road in the next two three days. But now it has been over three months now and the stretch is dark, he adds.
Gimmick
Residents say that it was nothing but an election-eve gimmick from the Corporation. Just as it carried out road repair work and other development activities ahead of election, it erected the poles. But it stopped work once the elections were called off.
In the last month or so, there has been no progress.
Kuppusamy, a Vadavalli resident, says that the dark stretches are accident-prone as vehicles move in and out of roads that branch off on both the northern and southern side of the Marudhamalai Road and the manoeuvring space is limited due to median.
Sources in the Corporation say that the civic body has taken up the work to light the unlit stretch of Marudhamalai Road and Thadagam Road at Rs. 2 crore. It has erected 140 poles to hold 280 lights with LED bulbs, each of which will 150w power.
After erecting the poles, the Corporation is engaged in laying underground power cables. It will complete the work and also fix the lights in the next 30 days or so. The work is almost on schedule, they add.
