Corporation to repair only potholed roads

The city is unlikely to see the civic body relaying of roads any time soon.

The Corporation had decided to go for only patching with bitumen the damaged stretches of roads across the city, according to Corporation sources familiar with the developments,.

The sources said that senior officials orally gave the instruction at a meeting of engineers which was held a few days ago.

The reasoning the senior officials gave was that with the Corporation taking up various works that involved digging roads it was better to repair damages than construct roads.

If the sources were to be believed, the patching of damaged stretches could go on for at least the next two to three years as the Corporation implemented works like the 24x7 drinking water, added area water supply improvement and underground drainage.

For the 24x7 drinking water supply project alone, the Corporation had estimated that it needed to dig at least over a 1,000 km city roads to replace feeder mains and distribution system pipeline. The project, which has just started, would take at least four years to complete.

Likewise, in the added areas, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board had taken up drinking water supply augmentation project, which again involved replacing existing pipelines with wider-width ones.

The Board would take up the work first in the added areas in the north and east of the city before moving over to Kurichi and Kuniamuthur.

The same was true of Kavundampalayam, Vadavalli and Veerakeralam, where the work to replace existing pipelines under another water supply augmentation scheme was under way. In Kurichi and Kuniamuthur, the Board would soon take up underground drainage supply work, as part of a project that involved providing the sewer facility to all the added areas.

The sources said that by the time, the water supply work was over in wards in the added areas in north and east, the underground drainage work would begin.

And, by the time the underground drainage work was over in Kurichi and Kuniamuthur, the water supply augmentation work would begin.

This meant the city, including added areas, would see more digging in the next few years to come and only repairing of damaged stretches.

Only after the digging works were over, the Corporation would think about relaying the roads, the sources added.