A group of young men from Krishnapuram at Edamalaipattipudur in the city have taken to self-help to repair an approach road to their locality after their pleas to authorities went in vain.
The road leading to their locality was laid 18 years ago when they were young boys.
“Since then, there has been no development. We have submitted petitions to officials in the corporation several times, but there has been no response,” says A Manivel, general secretary, Krishnapuram Youth Association.
When they approached a civic engineer, who visited the area for survey for the underground drainage system (UGD) project, they learnt that a permanent road will come only after the work was over.
“This is an old locality and we have many senior citizens here. Auto rickshaws refuse to ferry them because of the state of the roads,” Mr. Manivel rues.
Thirty members of the group, led by A. Naveenkumar, pooled in funds and collected around ₹11,000 which they used for purchase of concrete and other materials. “We cannot lay the entire road without permission and approval. We did patchwork in all potholes as a temporary solution,” he says.
With the excess material, the group is travelling across the locality and filling all potholes with debris and flattening the surfaces. “They asked us to wait for at least a year for permanent roads. With the pandemic and other delays, we are not sure when we will see it completed. We did not want to wait until soembody fall and break their back,” he said.
The youth group hopes that the civic body will complete the work and lay a permanent road soon. “We are at the far end of the city, on Madurai Road, and it is easy for authorities to forget us. However, we hope the UGD will be completed soon and we will have good roads to travel on,” Mr. Naveenkumar said.