Rain has damaged the Kattery Dam to Muttinadu Road in Adhigaratty neat Coonoor.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Heavy rain continues to damage the road connecting the village of Kattery and Muttinadu, posing a threat to motorists and local residents.
Local residents said that the road getting damaged was a regular occurrence, especially after a spell of heavy rain. They said the children were especially affected as they had to cross heavily damaged stretches of the road to reach the bus stops to go to school.
R. Muthu, a local resident, said that due to farming along the slopes surrounding the road, the run-off from the farms also would regularly inundate the road and lead to more damage. “The local panchayat, as a long-lasting solution, should work with the farmers whose lands adjoin the road to formulate solutions that will ensure that soil from their farms does not get washed onto the road during spells of heavy rain,” he said.
Due to lack of adequate street-lights in the area, motorists too complained that many parts of the route were becoming impossible for traffic, especially two-wheelers during the monsoon.
Parts of the Nilgiris experienced moderate rainfall on Thursday and Friday, including Coonoor, Udhagamandalam and Kotagiri.
The residents said they made representations to the Adhigaratty Town Panchayat, urging that new roads be laid along stretches, which had been most severely affected by rain, and to also increase the road height to prevent inundation.
The residents of Kattery village within the town panchayat came together to remove overgrown hedges that were impairing sight lines along the road leading to the village. They said their repeated requests to remove the hedges that had sprung up on both sides of the road along the Kattery Dam went unheeded. As they felt that the hedges posed a safety risk to motorists, and also due to fear that wildlife could take refuge in them, that they decided to remove the weeds themselves.
Published – November 01, 2024 05:29 pm IST
