In the past week, the Coimbatore Corporation rebuilt T.V. Samy Road in R.S. Puram for about 1.5 k.m. spending around ₹3 crore, which it received from the State Government’s Integrated Urban Development Mission.
The way the Corporation executed the work has come in for criticism for it built the road without milling – removing the asphalt before giving a fresh coat of bitumen. That it was supposed to mill the road became mandatory after the Chief Minister’s instruction and letter from the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration.
Building the road without milling had led to increase in road height and would pose problems in rainy season as water could flow into houses and other establishments, said residents. It was for this reason that the State Government had instructed local bodies to strictly mill before rebuilding roads.
In a January 2021 letter, the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration said “roads should be re-laid only after milling/scrapping and levelling the existing road so that the height of the street will not increase than that of basic height of the shops and houses situated in the street.”
It further said the level of road should be maintained in that the level should be the same before and after work to avoid inundation of the roadside residential/commercial area.
That the city engineer did not ensure that the road was milled before the rebuilding work was taken up showed that the Corporation had thrown to wind the chief minister’s instruction and Commissionerate of Municipal Administration’s order, said activist K. Kathirmathiyon, who had filed a case in the Madras High Court on making milling mandatory.
Ironically, the Corporation a few months ago had milled the Ponnurangam Road before giving it a fresh coat of bitumen. The then Corporation Commissioner Sravan Kumar Jatavath had told the District Road Safety Committee that the civic body had taken a policy decision to mill roads before taking the rebuilding work.
Mr. Kathirmathiyon said the Corporation had not only violated the Chief Minister’s order but also was in contempt of a Madras High Court order and therefore, the City Engineer was liable for action.
The Corporation sources said the ₹2.99 crore spent on T.V. Samy Road, included re-laying the pedestrian pathway and building the road. The pathway work was completed, a few months ago and the road work was taken up only a few days ago.
City Engineer R. Ramasamy was not reachable.
