Road work as part of the Smart Roads project under the Smart City project in the city is being undertaken in many places in a manner that even pedestrians are put to hardship, former Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.
Mr. Sivakumar, in a statement on Friday, said the Holy Angels’ Convent-Vanchiyoor road that was dug up in the middle for laying cables and soil dumped on its either side without prior intimation was the biggest example of this.
Nuns and teachers of Holy Angels’ school had come out in protest against the condition of the road in front of their school where hundreds of children and their parents reached every day.
Most main roads in the city had been dug up similarly, creating traffic hurdles and making life difficult for the people. The Smart City project that should have been completed long ago had dragged on owing to the negligence of the city Corporation and the government, he said.
No one was against road works, but these should be taken up in phases without putting the people to hardship, not randomly, he said.
Mr. Sivakumar said demanded that Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas convene a meeting of officials and contractors and arrive at a decision on preventing traffic blocks while taking up work on main roads in the city.
