Recently, while waiting at an auto stand near Chintamani junction on Kilpauk Garden Road in Anna Nagar, autorickshaw driver B. Shankar witnessed an accident. A motorcyclist along with a pillion rider had a fall with their skidding on impact with a protruding manhole. Along with a few pedestrians, Shankar rescued the two.
Shankar would not leave the spot, but alert the civic officials of Zone 8 of the Chennai Corporation about the accident, more particularly what caused it. He did this with the help of a traffic constable at the junction. He had a strong reason to do this, as this was the fourth such accident he had witnessed at the spot since September when lockdown restrictions were significantly eased.
“Sometimes, you have to go beyond just helping people. As I wait for customers near the junction, I often see such accidents and help the victims. But, on that day, I knew I had to something more than, so that an issue gets resolved,” explains 42-year-old Shankar.
In half an hour’s time, a team of three civic workers from the Bus Road Route (BRR) Department of Greater Chennai Corporation reached the spot. They dug the carriageway around the manhole, up to one feet, and ensured that the manhole was brought on par with the road. The damaged manhole was plastered with the uneven carriageway around the manhole and was bitumen-topped, as a temporary measure. A day later, the team visited the spot again to assess the condition of the repaired portion. They found out that the patched-up portion had sunk due to continuous movement of vehicles. And therefore, they used 25 kilograms of cold concrete mixer to level a much larger space around the manhole.
Corporation officials have pointed out that the damaged manhole is a utility manhole that had been created mainly for provision of Internet cables and other services by other services providers a few years ago. As per norms, such utility manholes should be constructed around one feet from the existing footpath to allow space for other public works like water lines. As the utility manhole is located close to the inlets of the existing stormwater drain, bitumen around the manhole got eroded. The erosion of bitumen went unnoticed due to low volume of traffic during the intense lockdown.
“Regular monitoring of the condition of key bitumen stretches are being carried out in the neighbourhood,” says a Corporation official.
Many motorists use the Chintamani junction, which connects New Avadi Road and the First Avenue Road in Anna Nagar with Kilpauk Garden Road. Chintamani junction has become a busy section, especially after channel-laying work began on Third Avenue Road three years ago. Motorists from ICF, Ayanavaram, Villivakkam, Padi, Anna Nagar, Shenoy Nagar and Kolathur take the Chintamani junction accessing it via New Avadi Road as the junction part of a short route to PH Road at Kilpauk.