Open drain and damaged pavement on 100 Feet Road trouble road users

The condition of pavement on 100 Feet Road is in stark contrast to the D.B. Road, R.S. Puram, which is a couple of kilometres away. Both the roads are commercial streets housing a number of big and small shops, see good pedestrian movement and bus routes.

But the similarity ends there.

The Corporation that is spending ₹24.36 crore to improve the pavement and road condition on D.B. Road seems to have ignored the pavement on 100 Feet Road, where the missing and displaced covering slab at several places expose the sewage flowing beneath.

The road had been in this condition for at least a few months now, complained Shameem Basha, a member of the mosque at the Fourth Street Junction.

The Corporation had removed a few culverts and slabs in the area a few months ago with the promise to repair the drain and cover it with new slabs.

The delay in executing the work had resulted in sewage overflowing onto the road during rain, leaving the entire stretch stagnated with dirty water. As a result pedestrians had very little space to walk on the road, the width of which had been reduced because of the flyover, he added.

Another shopkeeper said another problem with damaged pavement and open drain was that shopkeepers like him, their employees and customers had great difficulty in entering and exiting the shops.

Almost all shopkeeper had to make temporary arrangements like placing iron steps to help the people get into shops. The condition continued to this day in a few stretches.

Former councillor of the area, A. Nandhakumar, wanted to know why the Corporation that was spending crores of rupees to develop a part of the city was ignoring others. It did not make sense that a street in a part of the city was world-class and others were below par.

Such a lopsided approach represented the uneven approach that the Corporation adopted towards the city’s development, he commented and added that such an approach also went against the Smart City tag that the Corporation wanted to give to the city.

Sources in the civic body said the Corporation had repaired a part of the damaged pavement sometime ago and would in the next few days repair the remaining part. The civic body had sanctioned ₹8 lakh for the purpose.