The Hindu : Front Page : No road cuts till the end of northeast monsoon

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Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008
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No road cuts till the end of northeast monsoon

Staff Reporter

Corporation gets prepared for tackling flood-related problems

— File photo

RELIEF FOR ROAD USERS: Road cuts such as these have been temporarily barred by the Chennai Corporation

Chennai: The Chennai Corporation has decided not to permit road cuts till the end of the monsoon as part of its flood preparedness measures.

Road cuts are made by service departments such as Chennai Metrowater and by telecom service providers. Frequent digging of roads and poor restoration creates a problem for road users, especially on rainy days when water stagnates in the dug-up stretches.

Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said the civic body had requested Metrowater to temporarily stop road cuts.

Private telecommunication providers and the Chennai Cable Consortium have also been informed of the decision Radhakrishna Vittaldev, secretary of the Chennai Cable Consortium, said no new road cuts would be made for underground ducting of cables. Major road cuts had been taken up on Nelson Manickam Road and Sterling Road, where work was recently completed. “Work is in progress on R.K. Salai and restoration will be completed by this week,” he said.

The step to curb road cuts has been made a month before the onset of the North East monsoon, usually in mid-October, to complete restoration of roads that were dug up. However, road cuts are sometimes illegally made without permission from the Corporation. Recently, the Corporation turned down applications from two private telecommunication service providers as they often dug up roads without permission.

The Corporation would also chalk out disaster management plans in coordination with Metrowater, Fire and Rescue Services, Electricity Board and Police. Mock relief and rescue drills have been planned towards the end of the month. A ‘table top exercise’, a group discussion on possible disaster situations, will be held at the Corporation on Wednesday. The exercise would be valuable for the government agencies that have to network during emergencies such as flooding.

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