For several months now, a narrow mud road has been the only link to East Coast Road for residents of Paramankeni near Mudaliarkuppam, who await completion of work on a bridge across the South Buckingham canal.
While residents welcomed the move to build a bridge across the canal for much-needed connectivity, they said the work must be expedited and the bridge opened for traffic before the onset of the northeast monsoon. The Water Resources Department (WRD) had started work about a year ago to replace an old, dilapidated bridge.
The bridge was constructed at a height of nearly 8 metres to facilitate navigation as part of the National Waterway-4 project between Sholinganallur and Marakkanam proposed earlier. However, the project remains a non-starter.
R. Kanamuthu, a resident of Paramankeni, said the residents are using the mud road laid temporarily for the project to reach ECR. If the bridge is not thrown open for traffic before the rainy season, they would have to take a detour of six km.
Sources in the WRD said only a few works, including laying of an approach road, is pending and the project would be completed in a few months.