2,800 interior roads to be re-laid in city

According to Greater Chennai Corporation data, interior roads in all the 15 zones, including Anna Nagar, Adyar, Royapuram, Kodambakkam and Teynampet zones, will get a revamp.

“A total of 2,828 interior roads will be re-laid, of which 560 are concrete roads and others are bituminous tar roads. Most of the roads were damaged during the monsoon rains. The road works will be done at more than Rs 300 crore,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

The Corporation maintains as many as 34,893 interior roads and streets extending up to 5,623 kilometres, of which 1292.54 kilometres of roads are concrete roads.

Usually, the civic body would conduct road restoration and improvement works after the end of northeast monsoon every year. During the drive, the civic body, apart from re-laying the roads battered by the rains, would also repair the roads that are badly damaged due to road cuts by other service departments.

Of the 15 zones in the city, as many as 745 interior roads would be re-laid in Perungudi zone which is the highest number of roads earmarked for improvement in a single zone. As many as 227 and 225 interior roads have been selected in Adyar and Kodambakkam zones respectively. On the other hand, measures have also been taken to improve and re-lay more than 59 bus route roads across the city.

The civic body had already invited consultants to prepare detailed project reports (DPR) separately for North, South and Central regions. A total of 300 kilometres of bus route roads would be re-laid at a cost of Rs 1,160 crore under Chennai Mega City Development Mission (CMCDM) and Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF) funds.

“Cost of laying concrete roads is higher than bituminous tar roads. The cost difference is more than three times. Due to the higher cost, we cannot convert all the roads into concrete roads,” the official said.