Widened road fenced
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Road users of Ayanavaram find a move by the corporation baffling. First, the civic body spent nearly Rs 1 crore over five years in widening the arterial water tank road in Ayanavaram connecting Medavakkam and New Avadi road.
The move was to enable MTC buses to ply smoothly between Anna Nagar and Ayanavaram. And then, puzzlingly, corporation officials began erecting a fence on the widened road thereby cutting the carriageway to half its size.
“Are they out of their minds? We had put up with the road works for several years hoping that the widened road would provide a hassle free ride for motorists and safe passage to pedestrians, besides getting bus connectivity.
But they have now blocked the road defeating the very purpose of widening this narrow stretch,” said Geetha, a resident of the area.
The corporation released nearly Rs 1 crore as compensation to metro water and PWD for demolishing their properties as part of widening the road.
Though the work had been completed few months ago, relaying of road was not taken up reportedly due to problems in the tendering process.
However, much to the shock of residents, the authorities have now started erecting fences in such a way that road has been divided into two equal portions.
When asked, corporation authorities explained that they were erecting the fence so as to avoid indiscriminate parking of vehicles and dumping of debris on the widened portion.
However, residents pointed out that people started parking vehicles on the road already narrowed by the fence.
“It was better earlier as the vehicle owners were parking only on the widened portion but they have now started parking on the narrow stretch,” said M. Ramadoss, a civic activist from the locality.
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