Chennai: The joy of Perambur residents over a newly re-laid road in their neighbourhood was short-lived, as it was dug up within four months for sewage pipeline work.
Flagging the lack of coordination between Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and Metrowater, residents said such unplanned work causes traffic disruptions and wastes public money.
Earlier, GCC instructed service departments not to carry out road cuts for at least six months to a year after a road was re-laid, except in emergency cases. However, the first and second main roads at Chinnaiyan New Colony, relaid in Dec 2024, were dug up to upgrade the existing sewage pipelines under the North Chennai Development Scheme.
“Though new prefabricated sewage chambers are being installed to replace the damaged pipelines, which is a step in the right direction, we wonder why there was no coordination between GCC and Metrowater. If there was already a proposal to upgrade the underground services, it would have been appropriate to restore the roads only after completing the work,” said C Raghukumar of Perambur.
Residents and commuters are being forced to deal with numerous difficulties, as roads are milled, resurfaced, and dug up again within a short span of time. “It has become a never-ending issue in the area. After Metrowater or Tangedco digs up the roads, they fail to re-lay them properly. Eventually, we are forced to file multiple complaints with GCC to address the issue. It might take months before the roads are restored again,” said Ajitha Vinod, another resident of Perambur.
When contacted, A Radhakrishnan, superintending engineer of Metrowater, said the sewage pipeline replacement work was being carried out under the North Chennai Development Scheme. “Permission has been obtained from the Chennai Corporation, and we will re-lay the road once the work is completed,” he added.