Bad roads trouble Coimbatore residents

Gravel dumped to fill potholes has worsen the condition of roads after the rain

Potholes and slush are making it difficult for passengers near the bus stop at the Trichy Road - Pankaja Mill Road junction to board buses. Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

At the Ramanathapuram Junction whichever way one turns, he or she encounters bad roads. The Trichy Road stretch at the Junction was cut across by a trench-like structure to take an underground drainage pipeline to the southern end of the Road. It was closed two days ago, thanks to repeated complaints from the area residents and road users.

Upon turning south on to the Nanjundapuram Road, the road user encounters a narrow stretch, made narrower by parked vehicles on the southern side. After the recent rains, to fill up potholes, the Corporation had dumped gravel but that had not helped as water continued to stagnate there.

The stretch of the Nanjundapuram Road near the Ramanathapuram Junction had been in a bad condition for quite sometime and it turned worse with the recent rains, complained K. Kuppusamy, a resident of the nearby Nethaji Nagar.

After the Corporation dumped gravel in an attempt to fill potholes and level the Road, it had turned worse, complained V. Musthafa, who runs a footwear shop at the Junction.

Passing vehicles splashed slush on to his shop, separated from the road by a pathway, he added.

At the Trichy Road – Pankaja Mill Road Junction, things were far worse. There was no space for the commuters at the bus stop. They would have to find spaces between puddles of stagnant rain water and slush, complained A. Rahman, who runs a tailoring shop.

Those at the bus stop simply got on to pedestrian pathway to avoid the splash of dirty water from passing vehicles. But there was no adequate space on the pathway as it was damaged during the execution of the underground drainage work.

UGD work

The Corporation undertook the underground drainage (UGD) work around six months ago and since then things had been bad in the area, the residents complained. Sources in the civic body said that they had completed the task and paid money to the Highways Department to undertake the repair work but the latter was yet to start work.

The area Councillor T.J. Selvakumar (Ward 69) said that the civic body authorities would within the next 10 days repair the Pankaja Mill Road using gravel. The work was to have started a couple of days ago but a leak in the Siruvani pipeline delayed the road work.

Likewise, he had spoken to the Mayor S.M. Velusamy to prevail upon the Highways Department to start the road laying work at the earliest, he added.