Dug-up roads throw life out of gear in RS Puram

Coimbatore: RS Puram, one of the prime residential and commercial areas in the city, has become almost unliveable and unmotorable as the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation and the city corporation have dug up roads for laying electricity cables and water pipelines for the 24x7 water supply scheme, respectively.
As a result, DB Road in the area, which connects residents in the western parts of the city easily to the central and northern parts, has now been narrowed down to less than 15ft wide from 40ft. While one side has been covered, the job wasn’t done properly.
The bad condition of the roads has affected the business establishments in the locality. “There is a sharp drop in the number of customers,” says an employee of Ayyar and Co bakery. “It is mainly because there is no space to park vehicles. Even walking on the stretch isn’t easy.”
The area boasts of three major footwear, clothes and bakery outlets. According to them, the business had begun dropping even before the lockdown. “They had dug up the road in front of our shops more than three months ago,” said a staffer of Metro Shoes. The civic body had dug a 10ft-deep pit outside the building complex to connect the feeder pipeline to the shops’ water pipeline.
“Since we are not essential goods, people who think of shopping with us drop their plans when they realise the parking woes. During rain, we can’t even walk into our shops,” said an employee of Woodlands.
As the roadside area that the civic body had earlier earmarked for parking has been dug up, a regular customer at Aroma Bakes said, vehicles were now parking on the middle of the road, causing traffic jam daily.
The residents of Ramalingam Road, Mecricar Road, Sambandhan Road and Ramachandran Road say they could not even cross DB Road to reach Mettupalayam Road and the flyover. “The road is just 15ft wide now and workers have parked an earthmover there. Now, most of us drive all the way to TV Samy Road or Cowley Brown Road and then head to DB Road. Initially, they destroyed all the pocket roads. Now, they are damaging the main roads,” said K Radhakrishnan, a resident of Father Roundy Street.