Chennai’s road signs – a long and confusing story

Chennai's road signs are always changing. At considerable expense of our money. For a country which is ridden with poverty, corruption, terrorism, communal hatred and several such pressing issues, changing the street names or the quality of the sign boards are definitely not the issues which need to be dealt with on a priority basis

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 image below :

The idea of painting on the walls had its own drawbacks as explained by a citizen in this blog.

Subsequently the Chennai Corporation  chose to revert to the idea of putting up the retro reflective sign boards for reasons known only to them. Existing concrete sign boards and wall paintings were left as it is, and new boards were placed at road intersections across the city.

It has been only about five years since these new boards were erected, here are a few photographs taken by me to illustrate the state of some of these boards across the city:

I have been making calls consistently and escalating several issues relating to the quality of the work done, damage caused to these boards, etc with the local administration, and have managed to get the same rectified with relentless follow up petitions.. Here are some digitals relating to the work done

Vasan Street, Ward 70, Zone 6, Perambur, Chennai

Before  

After   

 

Venkatraman Street, Ward 70, Zone 6 , Perambur, Chennai  

Before  Complaint

 After  Complaint 

Before Complaint

After Complaint 

Between the 80s & 90’s the signboards made up of concrete was erected across the city of Chennai, these boards  are now way too low,  due to constant resurfacing of the roads without proper milling. The local administration could have easily lifted the existing concrete sign boards and repainted the same. These concrete boards had survived rough weather and were a durable and sustainable option. This would have saved the exchequer a great deal of money  and also in a way offered opportunities to several painters across the state.

For a country which is ridden with poverty, corruption, terrorism, communal hatred and several such pressing issues, changing the street names or the quality of the sign boards are definitely not the issues which need to be dealt with on a priority basis. If only our elected leaders felt the same way!

Comments:

  1. Raghukumar Choodamani says:

    Glad to see that the issue with the Retro Reflective Road Sign Boards are taken up by other Main Stream Media houses. Saw an Article in the Times of India of today. When more voices join this chorus, things are bound to change.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

High Court Orders, Does anyone Care???

Refer to my earlier post relating to the roads being resurfaced without proper milling: In continuation to what I had said in the above post, I would like to record the recent developments which could be of public interest. On the 15th of May 2019 I happened to pass through Kannabiran Koil Street ( North end of lane where Ayyappan Koil is located) and noticed some workers cleaning the surface of the road. I was wondering if the Roads were being swept clean by the Conservancy Sweepers Gang or if it was being prepared for resurfacing. Later in the evening…

Similar Story

“Story of the Missing Median” – Continues….

A temporary median made of concrete blocks and metal barricades was set up for a small length on the road in front of the Perambur Railway Station a few months ago. The same is now being replaced with a permanent median made of metal as is being installed in other parts of the City.

This is in continuation to my  previous blog post. A median made up of concrete blocks was originally installed between the Venkatraman Canal Street - Perambur High Road intersection  to the Perambur High Road - Madhavaram High Road intersection. This median existed until 2015 elections before it was removed, further details relating to this matter can be found in the link above. After repeated follow ups with the AE BRR, AC Traffic and the Zonal Office, a temporary median made of concrete blocks and metal barricades was set up for a small length on the road in front of the…