Residents and environmentalists heaved a sigh of relief as the Water Resources Wing of the Public Works Department prevented road-laying work across the Adyar near Anakaputhur. The residents said they had seen some persons laying concrete pipes across the river to create a road to a private plot on the other side of the river from Anakaputhur. Had they competed the work as planned, water flow would have affected, residents pointed out.
“The pipes, numbering 50-60 and measuring three feet in diameter, were dumped a month ago by a few lorries and we thought the PWD was carrying out some restoration work,” residents said . Despite the fact that they carried out road-laying work for more than 15 days, no one opposed their move and the rains on September 28 prevented them from going further as the inflow was increased, it was said.
On hearing about these developments, the Water Resources Wing of Public Works Department swung into action couple of days ago and demanded that the workers remove the pipes already laid. “It was believed that a private party tried to lay the pipes after getting a verbal approval from the Erandamkattalai village panchayat and we have warned them to remove the pipes at once,” the WRD official said.
