25 years on, residents in Chennai still wait for a road

CHENNAI: A street of nearly 100 residents in Thiruninravur near Avadi are waiting for a road to be laid on their street for 25 years, even as development activities around the area continue unhindered.
A brand new bus stand, a swanky flyover and a slew of commercial establishments have all come up around the area which is a suburb North West of Chennai.
But the residents of the second Street of Vatsalapuram, located right behind the town’s bus stand, claim that disputes over alleged encroachment has perennially robbed them of a road for over two decades.
“It is very difficult for ambulances and cabs to come in and it is all the more important when we are in the middle of a pandemic,” said R Varadhan, a former banker who resides on the street said.
Residents say they have filed petitions to the local officials multiple times but to no avail.
The seven other Streets of Vatsalapuram have neatly laid roads, but the second Street doesn’t. Authorities measured the width of the road and demolished encroachments in 2016, but a road has still been elusive for the residents.
The road has gravel and pebbles all over it, and residents say their vehicles keep getting punctured because of the absence of a road.
“Every time I take my scooter out for a ride, I’m always worried it is going to flatten a tyre,” S Lakshmi, a resident of Vatsalapuram for 20 years said.
The entrance of the street is lined with parked autorickshaws, who have converted the rickety street into an auto stand.
The street connects the road to many interior lanes in the town, many of whom find it very difficult to get to the main road. “It becomes nearly unusable during the monsoon,” Lakshmi said.