Coimbatore: Bad roads have put the city corporation councillors in a difficult position to face the residents, especially seeking votes ahead of the state assembly election.Raising concerns over non-sanctioning of concrete roads in several areas, corporation councillors say the delay in executing road projects has led to public inconvenience and that the poor road conditions would make the door-to-door election campaigning a tough job as they have to respond to voters’ expectations. Ilakummi Izhamselvi, East zone chairman, says “Roads are the basic facilities that the public asks for, and if that’s not fulfilled, how could we as councillors face the public and ask for votes?” In this wake, the emergency council meeting that the city corporation convened on Thursday offered much relief to the councillors, as it saw passage of 143 resolutions related to various development works. Among the key decisions were approvals to finalize tenders to the tune of Rs123 crore for relaying roads and construction of new roads. Councillors belonging to DMK and allies, however, say the scale of pending work is high, with more than 200 concrete roads requiring immediate attention. They urged the administration to expedite sanctions and implementation so that long-pending road works could be taken up without further delay across affected wards. Pointing out that road infrastructure remains the most frequent demand from the public, Ilakummi Izhamselvi says proposals for main roads often get sanctioned, while the ones regarding concrete roads are often neglected. “When the state sanction is not given, why not implement the concrete road projects using the corporation’s general fund? Works like centre median beautification could be done with the corporate social responsibility funds, rather than utilizing the general fund.” She says each ward has more than 20 concrete roads. “Imagine how many concrete roads will be there across 100 wards.” Chithra Vellingiri, councillor from ward 26, says funds are yet to be allocated to relay some of the badly damaged concrete roads in her ward. “Pattalamman Kovil Street, Ayyal Naidu Street and Tulak Venkataswamy Street are badly damaged and need immediate attention. While proposals to relay these stretches were sent to the state govt, approvals are yet to come through. Ellaithottam Road and Nehru Nagar streets 1-3 also need to be repaired.” S A Natarajan, a resident of Urumandampalayam, says the roads in his area have not been relaid for the past two years. “Road in Urumandampalayam core area, Sastri Nagar Street and Nanjaegoundan Pudur-Nallampalayam stretch sare in a very bad condition. We cannot commute, especially when it rains. Corporation officials had promised to convert these mud roads into tar roads. But nothing has been done in the past two years.” Corporation commissioner M Sivaguru Prabakaran says while they had sent a proposal seeking Rs230 crore to relay and construct several roads, including concrete roads, only Rs123 crore was sanctioned. “The state govt is not approving concrete roads, considering various challenges. There is no approval for us to implement such roads using the general fund as well. The state is ready to provide bitumen roads that are minimum 2.5 meters wide. But councillors are demanding only concrete roads, the cost of which is three times higher than that of bitumen roads. Another alternative is paver blocks, which are comparatively cost-effective. Roads that need immediate attention will definitely be taken care of,” he says.
