Entry points to city plunged in darkness

G.S.T. Road, Rajiv Gandhi Salai are among the few adequately-lit stretches

risky ride:Apart from a handful of highways, most major roads leading to the city lack proper streetlighting. The risk of accidents and theft on such roads has gone up significantly —Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Motorists entering the city through the several corridors find it a gloomy and unwelcome ride during night-time.

The city is served by several highways: Thiruvottiyur High Road, G.N.T. Road, C.T.H. Road, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, Poonamallee High Road, Mount-Poonamallee High Road, G.S.T. Road, E.C.R. and Rajiv Gandhi Salai.

Except for a few stretches such as G.S.T. Road and Rajiv Gandhi Salai, most of the other highway roads are poorly lit, say motorists. The risk of accidents and theft on such roads goes up significantly.

M. Narayanan, a resident of Kumanachavadi, near Porur, compared Poonamallee High Road with Chennai Bypass Road and said the Bypass Road has poor lighting.

H. Chandra Bose, a resident of Mohammed Hussain Colony, Kolathur, said most of the peripheral roads, including Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, Madhavaram High Road and C.T.H. Road, have no streetlights and this causes hardships to road users.

Mr. Bose said, last November, he filed a Right to Information petition asking the Chennai Corporation what steps had been proposed for installing street lights on the stretch of Jawaharlal Nehru Salai from Padi flyover to Senthil Nagar junction.

Till date, there are no streetlights on the stretch, he said.

Sri Vivek, a resident of Kodungaiyur, highlighted the plight of motorists using Tondiarpet High Road. The road, which serves as a link to G.N.T. Road, for residents of Madhavaram, Kodungaiyur, Selavoyal, Kannadasan Nagar, has been plunged in darkness for several months, making it one of the most dangerous stretches in the city.

According to officials in the highways department, streetlighting comes under the ambit of local bodies. “We only maintain the carriageway. We do not have funds to install streetlights or pay electricity bills,” an official said.

A senior official of the Chennai Corporation said a project to install 1,10,000 LED streetlights is being implemented in the city. Of these, over 38,000 have been installed.

“We expect the project to be completed by March 2016. All city roads, including those maintained by the highways department in newly-added areas, will be covered under this. Streetlights are being fixed in a phased manner,” he said. Whenever there are complaints about roads where lights have been installed, they are promptly attended to within 48 hours, the official said.