Add water pipeline-laying work to the list of factors contributing to traffic congestion on a two-kilometre stretch of Mount-Poonamallee Main Road, between Ramapuram and Porur. Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) started the work six months ago. The tardy pace of the work has come in for sharp criticism from residents and pedestrians. As dug-up soil has been dumped on the roadside, pedestrians have no choice but to walk on the carriageway.
The road where the work is under way is narrow and poorly illuminated. In the absence of safety features such as signboards and reflectors, pedestrians and motorists run the risk of slipping and falling into the trench. The project is meant to carry water from the treatment plant at Porur lake to overhead tanks and water filling points maintained by CMWSSB. (The plant was built last year at a cost of ₹1.9 crore to treat around four MLD of water every day. Water from lakes and abandoned quarries in the western outskirts of the city will be treated by the plant.)
The project will cater to the following areas of the Greater Chennai Corporation: Alandur (Zone 12), Valasaravakkam (Zone 11) and Kodambakkam (Zone 10).
“Steps will be taken up to complete the work at the earliest,” says a CMWSSB official.
