The Chennai Corporation has kick-started work on relaying damaged roads across the city.
Paving machines have been stationed at key stretches such as Nelson Manickam Road and G.N. Chetty Road, as well as in areas such as Anna Nagar, Velachery, Villivakkam and Adyar.
“Machines have been despatched to 50 locations. Work will begin this week,” said an official.
Many of the roads that were damaged for Metrowater projects will also be restored.
In addition to the work on major bus route roads, the Corporation has also started preparing to relay more than 4,000 damaged roads at an estimated at ₹700 crore.
The Corporation has already received aproval of ₹338 crore for restoring damaged roads under the Tamilnadu Urban Roads Infrastructure Programme (TURIP) 2019-20.
The project would improve roads damaged on account of underground sewerage and water supply improvement schemes as well as natural calamities.
Approval has been accorded by the project sanctioning committee of TURIP. Last year, the Corporation submitted a proposal for the relaying of bus route roads and interior roads, damaged because of the execution of improvements to footpaths and development of cycle tracks.
TURIP’s grant of ₹120 crore and a contribution of ₹100 crore by the Chennai Corporation was also finalised, with the condition that the Corporation Council’s resolution should be obtained before calling for tenders and a common model for bid documents should be adopted while calling for them. The work was delayed because of the monsoon.
The civic body would also engage a project monitoring consultant by following due procedures as per the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998, officials said.
In addition to road relaying, the Special Projects Department of Chennai Corporation will develop infrastructure for promoting non-motorised transport. “Smart street redevelopment in areas such as Burkit Road is an example. The estimate for a smart street along Burkit Road is ₹6.38 crore," said an official.
Most of the bus route roads, interior roads and footpaths are expected to get a makeover in three months, officials said.
