Almost a fortnight after rain stopped in Coimbatore, underpasses continue to be inundated.
Be it the North Coimbatore underpass, Kaleeswara Mill underpass or the (Avinashi Road) underpass in Uppilipalayam, water, which on closer look is sewage, inundate the driveway, making driving difficult.
At the Kaleeswara Mill underpass, the water covers the area beneath the railway track and extends to the entry and exit side of the Dr. Krishnasamy Road as well.
At the Avinashi Road underpass, the entry passage from Dr. Krishnasamy Road and the ‘T’ junction are filled with at least a few inches of sewage, causing similar discomfiture to road users. Cars and two-wheelers compete for the limited space available there. Road users want to know why the Coimbatore Corporation that pumps out stagnant water from the underpasses after rains has failed to clear the sewage.
Road Safety Committee member and consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon says it is because of the Corporation’s poor maintenance of underpasses in the city that the Highways Department decided against an underpass/subway while designing the flyover in Gandhipuram a few years ago. When vehicles avoid the underpasses, it defeats the very purpose of their construction -to ease traffic congestion. A senior engineer in the Corporation says that the reason for water stagnation in the Avinashi Road underpass is water trickling from weep holes on the walls. And, in the Kaleeswara Mill underpass it is sewage and rainwater from nearby mills. And, whenever this problem occurs in the underpass on Shastri Road in Ramnagar, it is caused by water from nearby establishments.
The Corporation has issued notices to the establishments to construct rainwater harvest structures, to prevent water from their premises flowing onto the underpass, the engineer says.