Whenever there are any potholes, or water stagnation or any services that disturb the functioning of the road and reduce mobility, the public tends to blame the Chennai Corporation. The Chennai Corporation is to maintain all city roads as per section 203(2) of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919. But is the Corporation really to be blamed? My research for Transparent Chennai indicates that it is actually not the Corporation that is in charge of all the roads in the city.

In the process of collecting data regarding the pedestrian facilities in the city I stumbled across a surprising fact: until 2006, the City road division of the Tamil Nadu Highway Department maintained seven corridors of roads. These city roads were handed over to the Highway Department in 2002 on a special request from the Tamil Nadu State Government as it was far from satisfactory and required urgent attention. This was done to provide good quality riding surface and driving comfort of the highway standards which the Chennai Municipal Corporation could not deliver, as it did not have enough money, man power and technical knowhow to work in this area. The funding to maintain these roads were being given by TUFIDCO (Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation).

Till today, the City Road Division of the Highway department continues to maintain four main roads measuring 65.9 kms in the city and 17 subways on these roads. Following are the roads:
S.No Name of the Road Length of Stretch being maintained in (Km)
1 Anna Salai (G.S.T Road) or NH45 28
2 Poonamalle High Road/ E.V.R.Salai (G.W.T Road)NH4 9.2
3 Wall Tax Road/ Erukkancheri High Road (G.N.T Road) NH5 10.7
4 Jawaharlal Nehru Road/ 100 Feet Road (Inner Ring Road) 17.5

But the bus shelters, street lights and the trees on these roads continues to be maintained by the Corporation of Chennai.
Any subsidiary functions such as laying of pipes (sewerage, water supply, telecom lines etc) which involves digging of roads and abruption of traffic due to these functions, on these roads requires prior permission of the Highway Department. Mr. Duraisamy, (Chief Engineer Planning division, City Road Division, Highway Department) said that the agencies responsible for these subsidiary functions pays the Highway Department for the road digging and relaying.

The question is who should one contact in case of any dysfunction of services which may lead to disruption of the traffic on these roads. As the services are being maintained multiple agencies like the water supply and drainage by the CMWSSB, the transformers and electricity supply by the TNEB, the telecom utility boxes by the various companies, the role of the Corporation and the Highway department is to manage and co-ordinate its repair and maintenance. They further hire contractors either through tenders or through their contacts to finish the job depending on the type and size of work.

The roads deteriorate due to wear and tear because of the traffic, and sometimes because it is not laid properly. The constant digging and relaying parts and stretches of roads creates imbalance and results in uneven surface. Hence, from all the above arguments, it is clear that the services on the roads require special attention, space and a body which manages and integrates these. This will result in better accountability and reduce wear and tear of the roads without disrupting traffic.

- Roshan Toshniwal

Bookmark It

Hide Sites