A safety hazard outside Besant Nagar post office waits to be addressed

A Tandeco cable runs over the stormwater drain in front of the post office on Besant Nagar Seventh Cross Street; the cable is getting damaged due to movement and parking of vehicles over it, says a resident seeking that it be tucked safely into the earth through a prompt re-engineering exercise before any untoward event happens

Since August 2022, when stormwater drain work swept through Besant Nagar Seventh Cross Street, residents have had one concern to “cable” Tangedco about. 

And it has to do with a cable, one moving transversely across the road from a junction box towards the Besant Nagar post office.  

Unearthed during the stormwater drain work, the Tangedco cable was not tucked back safely into where it belonged, points out N. Venkataramanan, a resident of Besant Nagar Seventh Cross Street. The result is a cable that runs over the stormwater drain, barely disguised with concrete work. 

“Efforts to cement the cable come unstuck; they are bound to. The cable is expectedly exposed and wearing thin, thanks to vehicles being parked on it as also to those running over it. The huge mailing van of the post office is often parked on it. A majority of those visiting the post office are senior citizens from the neighbourhood and they make their visit by foot. An exposed and damaged cable is a huge threat to their safety,” Venkataramanan points out. “Preventing vehicles from being parked on is obviously not the solution. The problem has to be addressed at its roots.”

As Greater Chennai Corporation manages the road, residents have been lobbing this issue on to its court, seeking that it play its part in resolving it. 

Says Venkataramanan, “It is a request from residents that both Tangedco and GCC put their heads together and resolve it. The local Tangedco officials point out that if the underground cable has to really go underground and under the stormwater drain, GCC had to do the road cut and drilling work.”

The image was taken on March 12, 2024. Photo: Prince Frederick