CORPORATION FINDS BID TO UPGRADE ROADS IN BUSY ASHOK NAGAR HARD TO IMPLEMENT
Roads that are wide, better-laid than most across the city and teeming with traffic unless it is midnight are what the Chennai Corporation thought fit to `upgrade' to `world class standards' -a plan that is a classic example of how the corporation jumps the gun on promising first and planning later.
`World class' roads are an obsession with the authorities in TN. The government allocated Rs 1,000 crore to lay roads of international standards in 11 cities. The 2011-12 civic budget included Rs 333.2 crore for the first phase of a project to up grade roads in Chennai in which it proposed to work on 30 roads. Where the money has gone is anybody's guess because no road in the city is even remotely world class. 1 Arterial roads like Dr Ambedkar Salai, Ashok Nagar 4th Avenue, Ashok Nagar 1st Avenue and Ashok Nagar 11th Avenue were chosen to 11th Avenue were chosen to be remodelled into international standards way back in 2012. On hindsight, corporation officials admit that choosing locations in the core city was not an executable idea.
“Had we chosen four roads in the expanded areas, this work would have been easier,“ said a senior corporation official. “A new locality would have given simpler scope for execution.But Ashok Nagar is already developed, so moving utility cables that run underground and diverting traffic are a massive exercise.“
Despite the obvious hurdles, the corporation chose to upgrade these roads, said sources, because this would give more visibility to their work. Though the ambitious plan was drawn a year ago, the civic body has not been able to figure out how to go ahead without affecting residents and commuters.
“Bangalore is an example of how everyone was annoyed when Tender SURE roads compounded to the traffic mess, “ said an urban planner. Tender SURE was introduced to provide wide pavements, spaces for parking and underground ducts for utility cables.
The re-engineering plan for roads in Ashok Nagar include a concrete carriageway , wide pavements, stainless steel bus shelters, dedicated parking space, medians with greenery and a fountain, and self-service coffee and tea vending kiosks.
Corpn toilet plan a stuck zip, only 50% target met
Christin MathewPhilip
Chennai:
Designing and launching satellites would appear to be far easier than building public toilets in the city . Corporation of Chennai announced a proposal to build public toilets three years ago but the project is stuck like an old zip. Isro, meanwhile, planned and launched its Mars orbiter that it conceived around the same time.
Building public toilets is not rocket science. It's just that it's the least of the corporation's concerns and the last thing on its agenda -announcing grandiose and costly projects and siphoning off funds from them is, of course, a far more profitable and enjoyable way to expend one's time and efforts.
The number of toilets the corporation planned for the city has dropped from 5,000 in 2012 to 348 in 2014. The civic body has awarded contracts to set up and maintain 348 modern public toilets to four firms, Namma Toilet, Saraplast, Eram Scientific Solutions and Wockhardt.
Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy promised that these public toilets would be operational by August but extended the deadline to September. But the firms have installed only 215 toilets have installed so far, many of which people cannot use because they don't have water connections. The civic body now proposes to set up a total of 15,000 individual and community toilets, to prevent open defecation, over the next three years under the Swachh Bharath Mission. It will construct toilets in the city with funds from the Centre and the state government. The civic body will bear 20% of the cost.
Commuters have complained about the lack of toilets on most arterial roads and public places like bus depots and markets. Sources say Teynampet and Ambattur zones have the fewest public toilets. The corporation's zonal officials blame agencies like Metrowater and TNEB for not providing water, sewerage and power connections.
