The movement of container-carrying trailers on the coastal Ennore Express Road has been badly hit due to bad condition of the service lane on the sea side. The containers are allowed only on the service lane in order to make the main carriageway congestion free for other vehicles.
The recent rain has caused huge potholes on the service lane that is hardly a few metres away from the constantly battering waves, considerably slowing down container movement in that area.
E. Kalimuthu, a trailer driver, said since these were large vehicles and could not avoid the potholes as they had no other way but to drive over them. In some stretches, like near Pattinathar Samadhi and Tiruvottiyur Kuppam, the damage was so bad that one was afraid the vehicles may even topple. Due to the vehicle pile up, sometimes trailers were made to wait on the Eranavur bridge or even on Outer Ring Road.
Rajesh, a resident of Tiruvottiyur, said no temporary restoration work, including dumping of building debris or patch work, had been taken up in that stretch. On an average, over 3,000 containers take that road daily. He added that portions of the northern sector of the Inner Ring Road too had been damaged and needed repairs.
Sources in the police echoed the same and said that the road condition was very pathetic. “We have informed the National Highways Authority of India, which maintains the road, about the issue,” an official said.
An official of the National Highways Authority of India said repair work would be carried out shortly. The service lane had been designed for light traffic but these were extremely heavy vehicles, which was adding to the problem. It would be set right soon, he added.