No construction materials on road, builders warned

Kataria was not the only victim. Many riders have lost their lives after running over on either illegally dumped debris or building construction material such as sand, gravel chips. However, most cases went unnoticed as the deaths were registered as mere accidents.

“When residents find construction material on roads, they should immediately alert the police and Corporation officials. Recently, residents of Vasan Street in T Nagar found gravel chips on the street and alerted police, after which they were removed. Corporation officials should also ensure this,” VS Jayaraman, member of T Nagar residents welfare association, said.

Despite the onus of keeping the roads safe falling on the Greater Chennai Corporation, there were no clear directions for storing construction material until November 10. “Keeping in mind that many building owners store sand, gravel chips and even bricks on roads or pavements, we have recently issued a direction to engineers to periodically check the construction sites. A circular was sent to all the zones on November 10,” an official said. 

The circular issued by Chennai Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan orders Town Planning engineers to include a condition in the planning permission saying, “no construction materials shall be placed in the roads or footpath thereby obstructing the usage of it.”  According to the circular, the junior or assistant engineers would visit the roads to identify encroachment and would report to respective executive engineers of the zones. “The officials will issue an oral warning to the building owners first. If the situation still persists, a notice will be issued to the owners and building permit be revoked. 

Causing hardship to the public by placing construction materials on roads and footpath can lead to confiscation of the material and temporary suspension of construction, the Greater Chennai Corporation has warned. A circular in this regard was issued earlier this month.

“If the building owner wishes to continue the works, he has to furnish an undertaking stating that he will not keep construction materials on road and footpath.

If the owner contravenes the undertaking, the civic body has the liberty to revoke the building permits for the construction of the building, which civic body issues,” reads the circular, which seeks to address one of the long-standing complaints from the public.

Explaining the need for appending a condition to the building permission papers, an official from the civic body pointed out that the roads were the responsibility of the city Corporation and it was their duty to prevent encroachments and accidents. “Even though the planning permission for multi-storied buildings is issued by CMDA, we have the right to remove construction material on Corporation roads and footpaths.

We will also lodge a police complaint as the construction materials cause a nuisance to the residents and motorists,” the official added.

Speaking on the Stephenson Road accident that cost the life of a young software professional about a week ago, the official said the concerned building is multi-storied construction for which the planning permission was issued by CMDA. But the civic officials took action, as the sludge that was dumped on the road, which led to the fatal accident, had encroached the road causing disturbance to public, especially neighbours.

Though the Chennai Corporation included a condition pertaining to the construction materials only now, it already has a set of rules for demolishing old buildings and disposing of the debris.

“Building owners should receive demolition permissions from Chennai Corporation and the demolition works should not disturb others. The debris should not be placed on the road and they should be transported to the designated places by the owner. If they keep the debris on roads and disturb others, they would have to face police action as well as Corporation action under the section 222 of Chennai City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) Act, 1919,” the official added.