Don't stop at potholes: Chennai residents pitch ideas for the Namma Salai app
T.K.Shanmugham, president of the Federation of North Chennai Residents' Welfare Associations, said the Namma Salai app should not merely focus on potholes, and instead resolve all civic issues pertaining to roads, including flood mitigation, street furniture, encroachment, and road traffic accidents caused by road design. 'The residents who intend to use the App for resolving civic issues of roads should be able to access comprehensive information about all the roads. For instance, the residents do not know the actual dimensions of the road, encroachment, or date of relaying of the road. We want to know whether the App will also provide such information for better transparency while residents try to post a photo of civic issues. Many narrow roads in north Chennai have the issue of flooding because the roads follow the undulations without proper design,' he said.
Ward 84 councillor J.John said most of the civic issues of roads are not resolved because of lack of transparency about the status of work on a road or the list of work completed in a stretch by various agencies. 'The civic officials launched four different projects on roads last year. The contractors who are supposed to do the work said the work in the package has been done in other roads of Assembly constituencies of important leaders. Will the App address such civic issues?' he said.
Former Anna University professor of urban engineering K.P.Subramaniam said: 'Namma Salai App may include the following issues for the public to address-road design factors: inadequate width to carry the traffic, unevenness, light reflecting road surface, storm water drain problem, skidding of two wheelers, frequent accidents, footpaths, broken medians, lack of bus bays, sharp curves and consequent poor visibility to drivers, frequent road cuttings.'
Pointing to the rise of traffic issues on city roads, he stressed the need for inclusion of complaints about traffic problems, traffic management- one ways, U Turns, restraining right turns, defective signals, invisible road marking, lack of sign boards, lack of pedestrian crossings, non-synchronisaton of signals, unannounced road diversions, poor traffic enforcement- over speeding, overloading, riding on the wrong direction, lack of transparency and coordination, indiscriminate parking, encroachments, and noise and air pollution.
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