The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has proposed relaying 3,505 roads, spanning 570 km under its ₹486 crore plan for the upcoming financial year 2025-26. However, citizens continue to complaint over bad quality of roads, which is riddled with potholes and poor surfaces.

As per documents accessed by The Hindu, ₹150 crore is expected to be allocated under Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF), ₹60 crore under Nagarpura Salai Membattu Thittam (NSMT) for the road work. Further, 1,759 roads for a length of 295-km need to be relaid with improvements for an estimated amount of ₹276 crore. Of this, ₹180 crore will come from loans/grants and ₹96 crore will be taken up under the GCC funding on a priority basis.

Progress so far

The GCC has relaid 14,937 roads out of the 16,062 targeted, completing 82% of the target for relaying —between the financial years 2021-25 for a sum of ₹1,844.4 crore.  

According to data, 1,640 roads (313 km) were completed in 2021-22 (99% of roads planned that year), 4,510 roads (778 km) in 2022-23 (97%), and 6,072 roads (1,094.98 km) in 2023-24 (90%), and in 2024-25, 2,715 roads (578.74 km) were done of the 3,273 roads planned as of March 5, 8 p.m.

A resident of North Chennai, claimed that the roads in Ennore were filled with potholes. He added that the same was true for Manali Main Road, and Gandhi Irwin Road, for which several complaints were lodged with the GCC, but even patchwork has not been done.  

He added, “Roads in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th streets of AJ Colony in Royapuram were relaid just two weeks ago without being milled properly. They are much higher than the old road on 4th Cross Street.” “Meanwhile, the road milled in Kailsam Street and Kesavan Street in Tondiarpet six months ago was relaid only recently but was very uneven. So, GCC milled it again. Height of the road must be checked before the bitumen is laid,” he said.  

Another resident of Burma Nagar in Manali Zone claimed that a portion of Burma Nagar Main Road under Division 16 has been milled, but bitumen has not been relaid so far, making driving on the road feel like passing through a sandstorm.  Another commuter in Gopalapuram claimed that Peters Road, from New College to Sathyam Theatre, is in good condition, but beyond that, there are several potholes. “The service road is also badly damaged. The road on the bridge connecting Meesalpet Market has had potholes since October 2024, which need to be checked by GCC,” the commuter added.

They all mentioned that the quality of roads needs to be checked and that the full width of the roads—including shoulders (the sides adjoining edges like sidewalks or stormwater drains), slopes, and crown height (the highest point in the road)—should be considered to avoid repeated relaying.

A official in the GCC stated that patchwork is done using mobile jet patchwork machines whenever minor damages are identified and that relaying is necessarily done after milling the roads once every five years. The official also attributed continuous damage to heavy rains eroding road surfaces.