During peak hours in mornings and evenings, it becomes difficult for a number of residents of localities in Ganapathy to reach the Sathyamangalam Road. The reason: they will have to use the Kattabomman Street, which is already congested.
P. Nachiappan, an office-bearer of the Gandhinagar Podhunala Sangam, says that residents of Gandhi Nagar, Teachers’ Colony, P&T Colony, Ganapathy Nagar, Chinnasamy Nagar, Maruthaiah Nagar, K.R.G. Nagar, BPL Colony, Yogiram Nagar, E.B. Colony and a few other neighbouring areas are forced to touch the Kattabomman Street to reach the Sathyamangalam Road because of the absence of a causeway across the drain.
Explaining the 10-year-old demand, he said that at the Kattabomman Street-Sathyamangalam Road Junction, they literally are forced to fight for space with those moving towards the Sathyamangalam Road. And the difficulty increases when the number of vehicles from CMS School to Gandhipuram increases.
The Coimbatore City Police placing barricades at the very place have only made things worse, he adds.
The area representative in the Council Ward 47’s P.V. Subramaniam says that one has to drive through the stretch to understand the difficulty for no amount of explaining it will serve the purpose.
The Corporation did initiate measures to ease the congestion but nothing much has come of it, he says and adds that he raised the issue at the Council meeting on January 31.
He sought a reason for the delay so as to take it to the notice of the Mayor S.M. Velusamy.
Contractor
At the Council meeting, the officials said that the civic body floated a tender and the contractor who won it started the work to only give it up midway. The estimate was Rs. 10 lakh.
The contractor had said that it would be difficult to execute the work within the estimate because the passing of the drain called for a strong causeway with good ground support.
The revised estimate, in Corporation’s assessment, will be around Rs. 25 lakh, the officials say and sought a fresh approval.
Responding to the suggestion, Mr. Velusamy asked the officials to prepare a fresh estimate and complete the work at the earliest.
