Vellore Corporation lays concrete carriageway without relocating electrical poles

With the onset of the northeast monsoon, the Vellore Corporation is laying concrete carriageway on the widened Chenganatham Hill Road in Rangapuram near Collectorate on Chennai – Bengaluru Highway (NH 48) without relocating existing Tangedco electrical poles.

Residents have criticized the road laying work without relocation of electrical poles by the civic body as they said that the new stretch with the electrical poles will pose danger for motorists especially during night. It will also reduce total road space that can be used by motorists. “Road laying work without relocating electrical poles shows lack of coordination between government agencies. It only puts road users including pedestrians at risk in using the newly laid stretches especially during night,” said B. Prema, a resident.

Corporation officials said that the existing Chenganatham Hill Road is around 10 metres-wide . The stretch connects Rangapuram and Mullakollai that comes under ward 24 of Zone-II of the civic body.

Over the years, illegal structures were built on both sides of the stretch. It blocked free movement of vehicles including trucks, lorries, and government buses. After complaints from residents, around 100 encroachments, mostly houses, on the stretch were razed.
 
As part of Smart Cities Mission programme, the 1.6-km-stretch was widened into 15 metres on both sides of the stretch for easy movement of vehicles. The widened stretch is being re-laid with cement concrete under Chief Minister Road Development Scheme (CMRDS) 2024-25 at a cost of ₹ 7 crore.

Corporation officials said that the civic body has requested officials at Tangedco sub-station at Sathuvachari to relocate more than a dozen identified electrical poles to the extreme end of the carriageway for relay work.
 
As the northeast monsoon has begun, private contractors have sped up work on the concrete carriageway on the stretch without waiting for Tangedco officials to relocate electrical poles as the newly laid stretch requires at least 10 days to completely dry before rain resumes.
 
Any further delay in the road work will escalate the total project cost. “Unlike bitumen stretches, which have to be laid on one-go, concrete carriageways are done in separate blocks. Road space occupied by electric poles will be re-laid once they are relocated. It will not affect other re-laid portions on the stretch,” R. Lakshmanan, Commissioner, Vellore Corporation, told The Hindu.

Tangedco officials said that relocation of electrical poles is done based on the total number of consumers, who would be affected due to power cuts and the type of transmission power lines such as High Tension (HT) and Low Tension (LT). Re-location of electrical poles on the stretch will be done in the coming days, Tangedco officials said.