Stormwater drain work crawls in Ashok Nagar

While stormwater drains are being built on both sides of Jawaharlal Nehru Main Road at a sluggish pace, precautionary measures to prevent mishaps are glaringly lacking. The dug-up portions of the road have not been barricaded. On portions where the work has been completed, road-relaying work is yet to begin. It is particularly felt on the section between Lakshman Sruthi junction and Ashok Pillar junction, as it is extremely busy, often even at night, with goods-laden lorries from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh passing through the stretch to reach the south of Tamil Nadu via Tambaram. “Unable to use the footpath, we end up on the carriageway, which is unsafe, especially at night,” says B. Sekar, a resident of Ashok Nagar. The State Highways Department is carrying out this work for the past five months. The stormwater drain is being widened three feet wide and six feet deep to improve its rainwater-discharging capacity. Residents of nearby localities point out that they have been enduring the traffic chaos due to this work for quite some time.