Shoddy road patchwork troubling Chromepet locals

CHENNAI: Residents of Chromepet complain over wet mix patchwork, which has damaged the roads. They said that the small gravel chips laid to fill the patches have spread all over the road and cause several issues for the public. The gravel chips pricks and people finds it difficult to walk over them.

“It has been a year since Tambaram upgraded to Corporation and the road has been still in bad shape. The local body should provide the basic amenities, including road and waste management. Though they have been upgraded, no roads have been re-laid in the locality,” said V Santhanam, a resident of New Colony, Second Street in Chromepet.

Ahead of the northeast monsoon, the civic body authorities are focused on drainage works and say they cannot take up roadworks. The Corporation claim that they are unable to re-lay the roads due to a fund crunch.

“Only recently, the civic body authorities started to collect property tax which was not sufficient. So they have approached the government to allocate Rs 50 crore to re-lay roads,” added Santhanam.

In the meantime, complaints about potholes piled up at the local body office that had to be closed, but they were filled with wet mix. “We have no clue about who suggested this method, because the corporation don’t have enough funds, they have wasted a huge lot of money on this for the patchworks. There are many alternatives they could use,” stated T Yogesh, another resident of Chromepet.

He added that their vehicle tyres often get punctured and they are forced to take longer routes to reach the main road. Also, the majority of senior citizens usually walk bare foot and now they struggle to walk on the wet mix of patched roads.

A senior official with Tambaram Corporation did not respond to the calls made by DT Next.