DEPLORABLE STATE: The pathetic condition of Anna Salai in suburban Maraimalai Nagar that connects the busy industrial estate with NH 45. — PHOTO: A. MURALITHARAN

TAMBARAM: A one km stretch of the Anna Salai in Maraimalai Nagar remains in a pitiable condition for over a decade due to official apathy and political differences.

For industrialists and residents of this satellite township, Anna Salai is a crucial link road that connects the industrial estate with the Grand Southern Trunk Road (NH 45).

Residents and industrialists have given up hope that the one km stretch of the road would ever be re-laid. More than 150 small and big industrial units in the estate use the road to connect to the National Highway 45. About 50,000 residents in the local body also use the road.

Maraimalai Nagar was conceived as a satellite township and shot into prominence when former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited it in the late 1980s for an All-India Congress Committee session. The estate is home to some prestigious names in the engineering sector.

M. Sahadevan, a resident here since 1984, said the road has remained in such a woeful condition for the past 13 years.

Some vehicles reach the estate after passing through residential areas, causing much inconvenience. While a major portion of Anna Salai is motorable, a 650-metre stretch from the junction of the GST Road and another 300-metre portion a little ahead needed to be re-laid.

Industrialists said the pathetic condition of their arterial road kept domestic and even multinational companies from investing in the estate. A representative of the Maraimalai Nagar Industrial Manufacturers Association said they had taken up the problems in the estate, particularly the condition of Anna Salai, several times with all the governments. But all such efforts proved futile.

Maraimalai Nagar Municipality Chairman M. Gopikannan said they had appealed in 2002 to the Kancheepuram Collector to intervene after the State Highways Department conducted soil tests and submitted its report on the nature of road to be built. Though it invited tenders and even issued work orders, there was no progress, Mr. Gopikannan said.

Last year, the Municipality initiated steps and appealed to the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration that gave an administrative sanction last month to bitumen-top a portion of the road at a cost of Rs. 93 lakh.

The Municipality immediately approached the Commissionerate for technical sanction, which has been pending for more than one month now, the chairman said. Stating that it was probably the most important project in the local body, Mr. Gopikannan said the Municipality would immediately start the project once it received the technical sanction. Commissionerate officials said the work's progress was being reviewed.

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