Potholed Roads and Overflowing Drains Pose Hazard Around Chromepet School

Severe civic issues, including cratered roads and an overflowing open rainwater harvesting channel, have created hazardous conditions for more than 3,000 students of Smt. Ramkuwar Devi Fomra Vivekananda Vidyalaya on First Main Road in Gajalakshmi Nagar and Mahadevan Street in Chromepet. The school, popularly known as SRDF Vivekananda Vidyalaya, operates across four locations in and around the Gajalakshmi Nagar neighbourhood under Ward 36 of the Tambaram Corporation.

First Main Road, which leads to the rear entrance of the main school building, is riddled with deep potholes, crater-like pits, and uneven patches. Students commuting on bicycles face severe difficulties navigating the stretch, with Class XII student V. Rohan Malolan recounting that his legs were twisted while pedalling along the road. Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses and tipper lorries also frequent the corridor to travel between the northern and southern parts of the locality, compounding safety concerns.

At Mahadevan Street, where the school’s main entrance is situated, polluted water has been spilling from an open rainwater harvesting channel designed to carry stormwater. Poonguzhali, a parent, said the polluted water overflowed onto the road following normal rainfall a few days prior, triggering health worries and obstructing access for visiting parents.

Parthiban, the administrative officer of the school, said the management had lodged a formal complaint with the Tambaram Corporation and flagged the hazard multiple times without receiving a resolution. The school installed slabs over the open channel at its own cost as an interim safeguard, but Parthiban warned that schoolchildren had previously fallen into drains during monsoon periods when water submerged road surfaces. He urged civic authorities to cover the open channel permanently within the school zone. Parthiban also called for speed breakers conforming to Indian Roads Congress norms, noting that traffic during peak school hours is currently managed by volunteers comprising parents and retired professionals.

Ward Councillor C. Saraswathi stated that the issue had been reported to Corporation officials repeatedly and explained that debris dumped from a newly built residential building had blocked the channel. Addressing the road repairs, Saraswathi said tender processes had been halted due to the rising cost of bitumen, leading authorities to plan concrete patchwork instead. However, local resident Gopi cautioned that concrete patches would cause additional trouble for motorists, noting that only a pucca tar road would provide a lasting fix.