A Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus moving on the service road north of the Ondipudur flyover towards the depot there kicks up a cloud of dust. A private bus that taking a ‘U’ turn beneath the flyover leaves behind a trail of dust.
The dust from the severely damaged service roads on both sides of the flyover blankets the area, causing problems to the people.
This has been an everyday affair for the past few years ever since the service roads were damaged and their condition went from bad to worse, rues R. Manoharan, a resident of the nearby Nagaiyan Thottam Street.
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The Corporation buses that move in to and out of the depot and private buses that terminate trips in Ondipudur use the service roads. The two together take the total trips the buses take to at least 600 a day, says A. Subramaniam of Weavers’ Colony, adding, “imagine how much dust each of the 600 bus trip kicks up.”
The only time the residents get to breath fresh air is between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. when the bus movement stops, they add.
After the Ondipudur flyover was thrown open to the public sometime in 2007, the National Highways repaired the road in 2010, in the run up to the World Classical Tamil Conference. Thereafter, the National Highways has done nothing much, Mr. Subramaniam complains.
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DMK MLA representing the Singanallur Assembly constituency N. Karthik says every time the residents complained of poor roads, all that the authorities did was dump debris, which, in fact, worsened the situation as it adds to the dust.
During monsoons, the service roads turn slushy. The uneven road surface and potholes that hold water for long make life miserable for the residents of nearly a dozen residential colonies who use the service roads.
The residents and Mr. Karthik say that though they have petitioned the National Highways to repair the service roads, they are unable to get any relief.
His last petition was in November 2019.
As the Highways did nothing about the service roads in the last two months, he inspected the spot again on Tuesday and squatted in protest in front of the National Highways office in Gandhipuram to draw the officials’ attention.
After his protest, the officials have promised to repair the roads in the next 10 days and re-lay the roads in the next month or so.
The Highways officials say they have submitted a proposal to the Centre seeking ₹ 33 crore for widening the stretch of road from Karanampettai to Palladam and as part of the work, they will take up the service road work as well.
They say the services roads were damaged due to pipeline laying work. Sometime ago, when they took up the work to develop roads on the eastern side of the railway track, they wanted to develop the services roads that are on the western side of the track but could not.
Now, they hope to take up the work once the government approves of the project, perhaps in a month.