Chennai: The tiff between the officials of Chennai corporation and HR&CE department is affecting residents of Velachery as a long pending road to link the interior areas to 100 feet bypass road is awaiting commencement for over 30 years.
Having no choice, residents are thus forced to take a circuitous route of about a kilometer through the narrow roads of Venkateswara Nagar and MGR Nagar to reach the bypass Road.
The unfortunate aspect is the fact that heavy vehicles cannot be brought into the tail-end localities through the tapered road, even during an emergency.
Narrating a tragic incident, committee member of Sangath Apartments Owners Association (phase three and four), T.K. Srinivasan said, “We had alerted a fire engine after witnessing a fire accident in our apartments last week. The vehicle had to stop some yards away due to lack of road space.”
“More than 5,000 residents belonging to AGS Colony, MGR Nagar, Netaji colony, Chokkalingam Nagar, Kalki Nagar, Andal Nagar, Bhubaneswari Nagar and Saraswathi Nagar were stuck during the devastating December floods last year - with no direct road to escape,” said Geetha Ganesh, joint secretary of AGS Colony Residents’ Welfare Association.
Echoing the anguish, S. Sundaresan, association president said the circuitous roads are inaccessible and makes it tough for office goers.
“The road gets chaotic when metro water tankers pass through. Being a small commercial space, it gets congested during vehicular movements,” he said.
Velachery MLA Vagai Chandrasekhar told Deccan Chronicle that he would soon convene a meeting with the officials of corporation and HR&CE to solve the problem. He would be inspecting the locality on Wednesday to understand the magnitude of the issue. “There are apparently issues on the market value of the land between the departments,” he told DC.
