Residents of Villivakkam are irked with the Chennai Corporation for taking up construction of the stormwater drain (SWD) work on Red Hills Road after the opening of the vehicular subway for traffic.
“It took nearly four years for the corporation to complete the Villivakkam subway work, which was unofficially opened for the traffic last month.
The civic body did not bother to carry out the SWD work simultaneously with the subway work. Now it is causing a lot of hardship to motorists in the northern part of the Villivakkam,” said residents.
The opening of the subway, which was constructed to replace the level crossing on Red Hills Road, eased traffic in Villivakkam by providing the much-needed link between north and south.
However, now traffic snarls have become a daily feature because of the ongoing SWD works. “After the opening of the subways, vehicular traffic has increased on Red Hills Road,” said B. Muthuragavendran, a resident of Janakiram Colony.K. Sugumar, a resident of Senthil Nagar, complained that the corporation has failed to widen Red Hills Road to ensure free movement of traffic.
“The corporation should remove encroachments on Red Hills Road immediately and widen the road,” he said.
A corporation official attributed the delay in taking up in the stormwater drain work to the communication gap between the bridges and the SWD departments.
“Only at the fag end of the completion of the subway work, did the bridges department intimate us about the construction of the SWD exclusively for the subway,” the official said, adding that the work on the 700 m long SWD would be completed in a month at a cost of Rs 60 lakh.