Residents oppose poor quality of road works in Salem

COIMBATORE: Residents of Sivathapuram in Salem have complained of the poor quality of road works being executed without proper milling.

A stretch of the Puthur Main Road in Sivathapuram was laid directly over the old, damaged surface without proper scraping and milling as mandated by the Indian Road Congress.

“Before laying a new layer, the existing bituminous concrete should be milled to appropriate depths to ensure the road height does not increase. An increase in the height of road margins poses a risk to vehicle users, who may skid and fall mainly while overtaking,” said R Muthukumar, a resident of Sivathapuram.

The residents also alleged that the new road was laid without fixing the water leakage beneath the road.

“I spotted works being carried out without proper milling and not in adherence to norms on Wednesday, early evening and raised a grievance online. Also, the road was laid by leaving open spaces in spots where there was seepage,” said B Rengesh, a resident of Puthur Main Road.

Further, he urged the authorities to first trace the source of drinking water seepage and set right the issue, before resuming works.

“Works have now been stopped. I have also sought to fix accountability for attempting to overlay the road without mandatory preparatory works. A stretch of around half a kilometre has been laid so far. A lot of public money is wasted by taking up such poor quality of work.”

When queried, an official of the Salem Corporation claimed that the works were being executed by the State Highways department and not by the civic body, while officials of the highways department could not be reached for comments.