Articles by Raghukumar Choodamani

For my second blog, I would like to write about retro reflective sign boards.  The local administration during the erstwhile DMK regime had, in the final months of their tenure, decided to change the existing concrete street signs to  retro-reflective stainless steel sign boards. In the first phase in 2011,  over 1000 important roads across Chennai  sported these boards. Months later, there was a change in the administration, when the AIADMK came to power. They suspected corruption in the  retro reflective sign boards project, and decided to paint the sign boards on the walls of houses as illustrated in the…

For my first post, I’ve decided to chronicle the three-year struggle to get Corporation of Chennai to provide a raised permanent concrete median opposite the Perambur Railway Station extending upto Adayar Ananda Bhavan, covering Venkatraman Canal Street and Perambur High Road intersection, similar to the median installed opposite to the Railway Kalyana Mandapam on Perambur High Road. In April 2015, residents from Perambur filed petitions with the Corporation of Chennai asking them to replace the existing median made up of concrete blocks. The centre median made up of concrete blocks had surfaced or carpeted with the level of road due…

On March 18, 2017 I visited a water body in GKM Colony located right next to the K5 Police Station (Peravallur), Jawahar Nagar in response to a request from Arappor Iyakkam to conduct an audit on the city’s water bodies. There were some workers who were involved in spraying chemicals and were also at the same time removing the floating garbage from this particular pond, which is called the Vannankuttai. A storm water drain (SWD) was found to be discharging untreated sewage directly into the Vannankuttai through a circular pipe, as you will see in the following image: Summer was…

In the hope that online procedures in the Regional Transport Offices (RTO) had improved and gave the user a smooth experience,  I tried to file an application for the renewal of my driving licence online through the ‘Parivahan’ portal, a few days ago. I was unable to complete the process and I received a message asking me to contact the local RTO office. I went to the RTO Chennai (North) early on the morning of Jan 29th to file the manual application Form 9 along with Form 7 as well as Form 1a and a medical certificate, duly completed along…

For months now, motorists have been having a roller coaster ride on Thiruvengadam Lane in Perambur. The road was resurfaced with concrete sometime in early 2016. Then, it was the turn of TANGEDCO to dig up the road in September 2017, to lay a new power cable to connect one transformer to another. Upon inquiring why the road was being dug up within a span of months, we were informed that a new electric cable needs to be laid and this work could be done only after the sanctions were in place. It’s been months and the dug up road…