It is a bumpy ride to Government Rajaji Hospital and many other private hospitals for patients who are taken on Kuruvikaran Salai here.
Ambulance drivers, commuters and pedestrians complain that the road, as many others in the city, is regularly dug for repairs.
A. Marimuthu, a driver of a private ambulance service, said the road meant trouble. “The route is unavoidable during peak hours. Navigating through the road with patients, who are in labour pain or in a critical condition, is difficult as it is riddled with potholes,” he says.
Many private hospitals like Arthur Asirvatham Hospital, Aravind Eye Hospital and Ashwin Speciality Hospital are also located in the surrounding.
Ten days ago, Madurai Corporation employees were working on a water pipeline in the area as residents complained of sewage getting mixed with drinking water. The pipeline is now fixed in part, but the road is left in a worse condition.
A. Balaji, an autorickshaw driver, said a majority of his customers are patients. “But many people do not prefer autorickshaws, especially after surgeries, because the roads are terrible here. They hire taxis instead, and we lose business,” he says.
An official of the Corporation engineering section, who looks after the area, said tar would be applied over the patches after the monsoon ended.
Local residents like T. Chitra, however, are sceptical. “They’ve been promising to fix this stretch for about a year, but nothing happened,” she said.
