Adyar roads rattle the bones
With around 600 potholes identified Adyar zone has the worst roads in the city
By : d. senthil natarajan
Update: 2014-10-30 03:41 GMT
Chennai: Motoring down Adyar, considered to be a posh locality, has become a bumpy ride since the recent rains. With around 600 potholes identified by the Chennai Corporation, Adyar zone has the worst roads in the city today.
According to a data complied by the corporation on Monday, the civic body identified as many as 596 potholes on just 97 roads across Adyar zone which comprises prime areas like Velachery, Tiruvanmiyur and R. A. Puram. Adyar zone has 2,678 roads across a stretch of 47 kilometers.
"The stretch from Ambika-Adyar depot signal to Indira Nagar is severely damaged. Moreover, the dust raised from these roads makes driving tough," said S. Selvamani, an auto driver at Adyar, voicing the concerns of many motorists.
"About 90 per cent of the damaged roads were laid more than three years ago. The newly laid 57 concrete roads have not felt the impact of the recent rains," said Adyar zonal chairman S. Murugan. "A total of 97 concrete roads have been planned of which 57 have been laid. "A total of Rs. 90 lakhs have been allotted to repair the roads."
According to the report, the city as a whole has 3,156 potholes, of which the central Chennai region which comprises areas like Thiruvika Nagar, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Teynampet and Kodambakkam has 1,672 potholes.
Thiruvika Nagar zone has 481 potholes across 67 roads and Kodambakkam zone has 440 potholes in 78 roads. Many of the roads which were laid a couple of years ago have eroded or developed craters.
“Only the roads which were laid two or three years ago have developed potholes which we are rectifying now,” said LIC M. Manickam, zonal chairman of Kodambakkam zone, adding that two contractors in the zone where recently blacklisted for laying poor quality roads, following which the contractors are strictly adhering to road laying norms.
“The newly laid roads this year were found to be resistant towards rain as we have introduced a quality control system to monitor the roads’ condition as and when they are laid. Poorly laid roads are immediately asked to be re-laid in this new system,” he further said.
The South Chennai region which includes Adyar, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur has a total of 1,012 potholes while north Chennai has remained the best part of the city with just 472 road damage spots.
“We are collecting information about the roads, particularly when each of them were last laid, by which contractor at what cost and whether they are covered by defect liability period condition, so that we can then impose costs on the errant contractors or make them redo the work,” said Corporation commissioner Vikram Kapur. “Our priority is to repair the damaged roads first,” he added.
In Wednesday’s report update, the corporation has identified 640 more potholes across the city, increasing the total number to 3,796. The corporation claims to have repaired 3,522 so far.