Chennai’s already fragile road network has been pushed to breaking point after days of relentless rain left major city arteries riddled with craters and potholes, paralysing traffic and exposing deep flaws in civic preparedness. Commuters across the city faced nightmarish travel times as arterial roads such as Anna Salai, Arcot Road, Sardar Patel Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) turned into obstacle courses of rain-filled pits.
On Tuesday morning, traffic came to a crawl across several key corridors, with stretches in Saidapet, Teynampet, Koyambedu and Vanagaram witnessing gridlock lasting hours. Motorists struggled to manoeuvre around deep, waterlogged potholes, with many describing their daily commute as “hazardous”. Even short distances took twice the usual time, as drivers were forced to slow down or take detours through flooded lanes. With the city’s road surfaces battered, even traffic police officers resorted to filling the worst potholes with gravel to keep vehicles moving. However, such temporary fixes have done little to improve safety or ease congestion. “We fill them just enough for cars to pass,” said a traffic official stationed on Arcot Road, reflecting the growing frustration among commuters.
Citizens and urban experts have raised sharp questions about why preventive road maintenance was neglected through the long summer months, despite warnings about monsoon damage. Officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) admitted that less than a kilometre of the 3.6 km Arcot Road stretch between Valasaravakkam and Porur has been relaid. The unfinished portion, a vital link between Porur and Guindy, remains dug up and vulnerable to further erosion. Following repeated delays, tenders worth ₹50 crore were floated only on October 25—almost ten days after the onset of the northeast monsoon—to restore critical routes such as the Adambakkam–Medavakkam Road and the Chennai–Bengaluru NH-4, both disrupted by Metro Rail construction. These roads serve tens of thousands of vehicles daily, yet reconstruction has been piecemeal at best.
Meanwhile, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd had released ₹340 crore as early as July for road restoration work—₹151 crore to the Highways Department, ₹110 crore to GCC and ₹78.49 crore to the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC). Yet, progress remains uneven. TNRDC has completed only a five-kilometre stretch on OMR, while the Highways Department has managed surface correction on just 2.3 km of the Mount–Poonamallee Road. The GCC’s stormwater drain project has barely covered 300 metres of the planned 8.3 km stretch. As continuous rainfall looms in forecasts, concerns are mounting about whether Chennai’s infrastructure can withstand another round of deluge. Experts warn that neglecting long-term planning and adopting reactive, patchwork repairs will only deepen the cycle of urban vulnerability. For a city that aspires to be climate-resilient and globally competitive, sustainable and timely infrastructure upkeep remains the need of the hour.
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