There are no signboards announcing speed limit in localities off Trichy Road in the East Zone of the Coimbatore Corporation. But two-wheeler riders and four-wheeler drivers exercise caution, as they have been doing so for the last 12 months as a matter of routine.
The reason: the roads are damaged.
The corporation undertook laying underground drainage pipelines in Masakalipalayam, Singanallur, Neelikonampalayam, Singanallur, and several residential localities in the East Zone but had hardly followed it up with restoration works.
The delay in repairing the damaged roads had resulted in potholes on roads and dents in vehicles as road users faced difficulty in negotiating the bad stretches, said S. Mudiappan, a fish vendor.
The potholes and damaged portions of the roads had left road users with very little manoeuvrable space that the two-wheeler riders often end up losing balance or dashing against four-wheelers. For people like him, falling off his moped also meant that the day’s business was lost.
R.K.K. Nagar resident L. Kamala said that the corporation executing the underground drainage work in the area had resulted in frequent leakages in the drinking water supply pipeline.
The story is no different in Angalamman Layout where for the last six months the corporation had left the roads unattended, complains Balu T., who runs a motel there.
The residents want the corporation to relay the roads at the earliest or at least restore the roads to motorable condition before the onset of the South West Monsoon.
Sources in the Coimbatore Corporation said that it was executing underground drainage pipeline in the East Zone for 223km and as on date, it had completed 118km. In areas where it had completed the work, it had restored the road for 30.1km at Rs. 11.74 crore.
In the next couple of weeks the civic body would take up work for another 9.6km at Rs. 3.78 crore and it would take up work for another 68.32km at Rs. 43.19 crore in the next few months.
