Tamil Nadu’s municipalities and corporations are being asked to submit photographs at 30-metre or 50-metre intervals when seeking approval for new roads, as the state government moves to restrict unnecessary road works and control infrastructure spending, Dinamalar reported.
The photographs are to be used to assess the condition of the entire road proposed for construction or renewal. The report said the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration has sought these details from urban local bodies before approving project proposals.
The submitted images are also being checked through satellite imagery, according to the report. Only roads considered to require new construction or renewal are expected to receive approval under the process. The stated objective is to prevent repeated road-laying works where existing surfaces remain usable and to reduce avoidable expenditure.
Under the instructions described in the report, a road with only a small pothole may not qualify for complete renewal. Similarly, if photographs show a damaged section in one part of a road while the remaining portions are in good condition, local bodies have been advised to undertake patchwork instead of relaying the entire road.
The change affects corporations and municipalities across Tamil Nadu, which routinely submit proposals for new roads and other urban infrastructure works. These local bodies receive loans and financial assistance through institutions including the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund, the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited and the Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation.
Dinamalar linked the spending controls to financial pressure on the state government and said the administration was seeking to limit expenditure as part of wider policy decisions. The report also said that municipal administrations were facing delays or difficulty in securing approval for some road proposals because of the tighter scrutiny.
The revised process places greater emphasis on condition-based approval rather than treating an entire road as requiring reconstruction. For local bodies, this means that project proposals will need to document road conditions at regular intervals and demonstrate why a full road work is necessary.
The report said the system was reducing unnecessary road renewals while allowing roads in areas with a genuine requirement to receive approval. Further approvals will depend on the photographs submitted by urban local bodies and their comparison with satellite imagery, according to the account.
