Chennai’s civic body is planning to introduce an integrated online platform to coordinate and fast-track road repairs, aiming to eliminate long-standing public grievances over delayed civic works and uncoordinated service cuts.The Greater Chennai Corporation is reportedly exploring a digital coordination system that will unify multiple city departments, including water supply, electricity, metro rail and sanitation boards.
This comes after repeated complaints from residents across several zones over deteriorating road conditions caused by prolonged, incomplete and often duplicated underground utility works. From arterial stretches in Valasaravakkam to residential lanes in Nungambakkam and Purasaiwakkam, residents have flagged unending disruptions, poorly patched road cuts and unresponsive civic intervention. In several areas, ongoing pipeline and cable-laying work has left roads dangerously uneven, triggering safety risks for motorists and pedestrians alike. In a city already grappling with heat waves and unseasonal rains, poor road surfaces further worsen environmental resilience and carbon efficiency.
At a recent high-level review, the civic administration instructed officials to urgently take up repairs on what it termed a “war footing”, in an effort to streamline coordination between agencies that include the metro water board, electricity utility and transport undertakings. The discussion follows mounting pressure from elected representatives and citizens during the Corporation’s council meet, where lack of inter-departmental communication was cited as a key obstacle to faster resolution. The proposed online platform, still under consideration, aims to create a single digital window through which all departments can file work permissions, track ongoing works, and commit to time-bound restoration of roads. Officials noted that this move could substantially cut down bureaucratic delays, improve accountability, and reduce the number of redundant road cuts by synchronising planned works.
The idea is in line with Chennai’s broader push to become a more climate-responsive and digitally governed metro. By minimising open excavations, the city can reduce dust emissions, save materials used in frequent re-laying, and encourage more sustainable road engineering practices. A digital system will also support data collection to analyse recurring issues and allow better zoning and utility planning in the future. Despite these efforts, legacy grievances persist. In neighbourhoods like Lebanonpuram, residents are still struggling with incomplete service connections cut off years ago due to flyover construction. In such cases, locals continue to pay service taxes without access to basic water supply, relying on manual pumping or private water delivery for their daily needs. The absence of borewell infrastructure due to urban design constraints has only worsened the situation for lower-income residents in these areas.
Urban planners and civic activists have long argued that smart city ambitions must be backed by grassroots digital governance, and this upcoming initiative—if implemented with clarity and transparency—could offer a working model for other Indian cities facing similar challenges. While the online system is still in the planning stages, it reflects a much-needed shift toward data-driven, citizen-centric civic management in Chennai. As the city expands and modernises, the integration of technology with equitable service delivery will be key to maintaining both liveability and sustainability in the years to come.
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