Chennai: Pothole-riddled roads, dug-up stretches, and low-hanging electric cables have been plaguing the residents of Puducherry Pattai Road on OMR’s Semmenchery for the last one and a half years, as civic work in the area has moved at a snail’s pace.With more than 500 houses, including apartments, PG accommodations, and small-scale industrial units, the stretch is used by people to reach Navalur from Semmenchery without taking the OMR. However, since Greater Chennai Corporation dug up the roads for storm-water drain work, even local residents are unable to commute in the area.“First, GCC dug up the roads around May last year, completed part of the work, and left. Then, the Metrowater came and dug up the middle of the road to lay a water connection pipeline. The works were stopped midway. Both left when the monsoon came last year, and ever since, the work has been going on in patches,” said A Raja, who owns a carton dispatch unit on the stretch.Low-hanging wires are another menace, said residents. “Last month, my buffalo calf got electrocuted after a wire fell into a puddle. When informed, GCC removed the wire and cleared the pothole. But potholes are back on the stretch again,” said S Kuppamal, a cattle owner.When TOI visited the site, there were at least 30 potholes along a 500m road, and several dug-up stretches were left open without barricades. The potholes overflowed into the neighbourhood, indicating flood risk. There were just two streetlights along the entire stretch, and one of them sags over the road. Residents said that multiple complaints, even on the Namma Chennai app, yielded no result.GCC zonal officer G Lokeshwaran said they will call a meeting to discuss the issue. “The work is in the final stage. Some of the pipelines and drains were damaged during the work, and Metrowater was working to rectify them. They are almost complete. The roads will be laid once Metrowater gives a no-objection certificate,” he said.“We will fill all the potholes and try to complete the work in dug-up areas in the next two weeks and lay temporary roads. We also received complaints of snakes entering homes owing to the work,” an area engineer from ward 200 said.
