Thousands of residents in areas such as Sholinganallur in the south to Tiruvottiyur in the north, which became part of the Greater Chennai Corporation, can now hope for proper roads.
Eight years ago, many of the suburbs in the city’s north, south and west were merged with the Corporation.
But many residential areas, including the huge apartment complexes off the IT corridor, OMR, have only mud roads.
Now, the Corporation has identified over 1,200 such stretches for laying new roads.
This is expected to improve road infrastructure in developing parts of the city such as Sholinganallur, Perungudi, Alandur, Valasaravakkam, Ambattur, Madhavaram, Manali and Tiruvottiyur, officials said.
For example, stretches in ward 193 such as MCN Nagar First Street, Prakasam Street, Kasturbanagar First Main Road, Karpagavinayagar Nagar First Main Road, Ananda Nagar First Cross Street and Mahatma Gandhi Nagar First Main Road have been identified for laying new road, officials said.
Mugalivakkam resident K.S. Kannan said many places in added areas were yet to have motorable roads.
“AGR Garden in Mettukuppam, Mugalivakkam does not have bitumen roads. Residents have been requesting Corporation officials to form new roads,” said Mr. Kannan.
Most of the stretches identified for new roads are in the range of 100 to 500 m in length in the layouts that have been developed in the past few decades. The stretches will get 50 mm of bitumen macadam and 40 mm of bitumen concrete.
Roads in core city
Meanwhile, the Corporation has also decided to go for new roads in core areas of the city that have been severely damaged because of digging by line agencies such as Metrowater.
Chellapillaiyar Koil Street in ward 118 is an example of a stretch that has been dug up by line agencies and identified for new road.
“An average of six roads in each ward in the core areas have been damaged because of digging by line agencies. Relaying will not be enough as these roads resemble mud roads,” said an official.
Former DMK councillor Deva Jawahar said some of the dug-up roads in old city limits had not been restored for many months.
