No road only pools
Rain water stagnates on Church Road off Athipalayam Pirivu in the city making the stretch a nightmare for the vehicle. Church Road is just on paper. There is no road here at all. Trucks, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians climb in and out of more than 10 pools of rain water on what is claimed to be a main road off Athipalayam Piruvu near Ganapathy. Coming under Ward 72 of the Coimbatore Corporation, the road to Assisi Nagar is a mess. For close to two decades, the people in this area have paid the price of building houses in an unapproved layout. Lack of streetlights, drainage and roads are the penalty they had been paying for being in such a layout. As per rules, these amenities cannot be provided to unapproved layouts. But, Assisi Nagar residents say their layout had been regularised under a new scheme early this year and they have been hoping since then for the amenities.When the Corporation announced then that gravel roads would be provided to the layouts, the people of Assisi Nagar thought that their problems were coming to an end. But, no solution has come till date and rain has worsened the situation, they say. The road leads to a church and an orphanage also. “It is an ordeal for those who go to the church on Sundays and the orphanage is the worst affected because of a huge pothole near its entrance,” says R. Chitra, a resident. R. Vinod Kumar, another resident, points at mosquitoes breeding in the stagnating rain water. “We face the threat of diseases,” he says. Pointing at a Maruti van struggling to negotiate the pools, president of the Assisi Nagar Welfare Association W.J. Wellington says: “We dread walking this stretch during rain. The pits can at least be filled and the road levelled using gravel. Such a basic effort will prevent flooding.” Treasurer of the association Abdul Rahman alleges that at least the potholes were filled during the term of the previous Council of the Corporation. Now, even that has not happened. Ms. Chitra says that only the people and a few industrial units on this road contribute funds to fill the potholes.
“Sometimes, women going to offices are forced to change clothes at the houses of friends or relatives after getting out of this road. There is no way to bring women and girls safely on two-wheelers back to their houses after work or college.” Mr. Abdul Rahman says that the road is used as a bypass to reach Sathyamangalam Road, if an accident blocks traffic on Athipalayam Road. During such times, there is heavy stress on this already damaged road.Appeals have been made to the Corporation authorities for laying a good road. Mr. Rahman says that the Corporation’s North Zone Chairman C. Padmanabhan has assured that road work will be taken up in a month.
