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In some parts of the town like in Govindasamy Nagar, new road was laid just before the starting the underground drainage work. Like many, I believe this is not just a lack of coordination between the departments, but done intentionally to loot away the fund allocated by doing a poor quality work, which anyhow will be covered up once the drainage works begins.

In some streets like in Periyanayagi Amman Kovil Street, the road laying work has started before the pipe laying work for the underground drainage is complete. As a result the new road is damaged as the drainage work progresses. It has been more than five years since road was laid last time in this street. Can’t they wait for a couple of months ? Isn’t this intentional ??

Road laying work in Periyanayagi amman kovil street in Thirupadhiripuliyur

I feel that it is impossible to capture everything that is going around in Cuddalore in the name of ‘underground drainage construction’ in a single article. So I will be writing a series of articles about the work in Cuddalore.

To my knowledge, irregularities and corruption behind this drainage work is not reported by other medias. So input from other sources are minimal.

It would be of great help if you can share about the irregularities and the politics behind the work in your locality. You can write your views as a comment or send a mail to cuddaloreonline [at] gmail [dot] com.

With the ongoing works for laying underground drainage going on in many parts of Cuddalore, the slow progress of the work is bringing much hardship to the residents of Srinivasa Pillai Street situated in Thirupadhiripuliyur.

Above is the rough map of the street which is situated near the Thirupadhiripuliyur Police station. For the residents of Srinivasa Pillai Street to move out, there are four exit points. With the drainage canal laying work being done in Bodi Chetty street and Sanjeevi Naidu street, the exit points 2, 3 and 4 are blocked and people find it difficult to move out only through the point 1. More than 5 weeks have passed since these ways were cut off for regular vehicular movement and the laying of culvert at these three points are yet to start.

This is the exit point 2, which connects to the Bodi Chetty street. The passage was disconnected 5 weeks back and the culvert construction is yet to start.
Elderly people and school children are the most affected and there has been many instances where children have fallen into this sewerage while crossing on the temporary narrow slab.
The exit points 3 & 4 have been disconnected for the past five weeks.

Underground Drainage work in Srinivasa Pillai Street

The work for under ground drainage at Srinivasa Pillai street was started four weeks back. So far the initial stage of constructing the manhole is completed for half of the street on the Northern side.
The mud taken out from these pits had not been cleared for the past four weeks and during rains it makes the little existing passage more slippery with two wheeler riders losing control and falling down and four wheelers getting struck up in the mud.

As the drainage is not being cleared in a regular manner for long time the level of drain water has come up resulting in sewage flowing into drainage line of one of the houses. The above picture shows mud removed from the sewerage by the resident.

A pit for constructing manhole was dug up and two cart loads of the mud dumped at this private place. Since it was not cleared and the place is needed for parking vehicles, the people themselves have taken the task of levelling the mud.

With the materials required for laying drainage pits lying haphazardly for more than a month, people are finding it difficult to use the road.

Timely intervention is needed for building these three culverts, removal of debris and moving out the mud promptly once it is dug up is highly required to avoid hindrance to the residents and users of the Srinvasa Pillai Street.

Most parts of Cuddalore was without any drainage facility for all these years. But all in a sudden drainage construction on either side of the roads has begun, while the underground drainage construction work is already in progress.

During the drainage line construction municipal water pipe lines are badly damaged, and no proper replacements are made in most cases. As a result water keeps leaking for for months and sometimes year together. In even worser cases drainage mixes with the drinking water.

The picture below shows the drainage construction work at Bodi Chetty Street in Thirupadhiripuliyur. Just two years back a drainage line constructed in this place. Now a new line is being built demolishing the old one. I don’t understand the purpose behind this. I fact none of the residents of the street does.

This street is one of the oldest streets in the town. The drainage level is raised (probably because the road level is going to be raised). Old houses in this street will go below the road level. When there is a rain, water from road will flow into drainage line and from drainage lines into these houses.

Broken municipal water pipes leaking

Related link:
Drinking water in Cuddalore - Cuddalore Online

Underground drainage construction work is in progress in various parts of Cuddalore. It don’t appear to be like a work for underground drainage system. As far as I have seen some cement pipes are being laid in small trenches. Progress of the work is very slow.

Related link:
Underground drainage system draws flak-The Hindu

Underground drainage construction work in Seetharam Nagar.