Many roads in the city are in a bad shape. Potholes are posing threat to motorists at nights.
Which are the good roads in the Temple City, asked a few readers of The Hindu recently through the Reader’s Mail column.
When the question was posed to Corporation Commissioner Sandeep Nanduri, he said, “Road-laying is a continuous process. We had recently taken up re-laying of 106 roads at a cost of ₹26 crore. While 90% of them have been completed, others are nearing completion. Likewise, close to ₹30 crore collected as ring road toll fee has been transferred to the Corporation account by the State government with which roads are laid under the Special Roads Fund.”
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Like drinking water and street lights, roads were also given equal importance, he said and welcomed the public to bring to the Corporation’s notice bad roads or those which required repairs.
Apart from the above two funds, the Corporation also laid roads with funds from the MP and MLA’s constituency development fund and councillors’ ward funds.
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Each elected representative has to set aside a specific sum towards road development in their constituency/ward every year.
Engineers said that the city had a total of 1572.53 km of roads which included bituminous road, cement road, metal road, earthen road and paver road.
While the roads within the city were mostly “good,” those in the extension colonies (i.e., newly covered wards in the Corporation) were not that motorable, they admitted.
For instance, much had to be done in the case of roads which were added to the Corporation limits three years ago, including those from Avaniapuram, Tirupparankundram, Vilangudi, Anaiyur and parts of Kadachanendal, the engineers said.
However, roads around Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple would get top priority under the Smart City Project.
“Very soon, you may not be able to see electric wires above the head as they would go underground,” Mr. Sandeep Nanduri said.
No more road cuts
He added that there would be no more road cuts by different agencies for cable laying or other work, as they would be given special ducts on the road side.
Roads up to Veli streets, beginning from the temple area, would have provision for storm water drain and thus there would not be any seepage or overflow on the roads.
Admitting that Masi streets and a few other stretches in and around and near Railway Junction had to be laid as the underground drainage works were nearing completion, the Commissioner assured that in about two months, the city would have a new look as they were going ahead with the Smart City Project.
“We are in the process of identifying heritage works and soon we will get into action,” he assured.