Anna Nagar’s craters

Bumpy roads in Chennai are a fixed feature every monsoon, but Anna Nagar tops the list when it comes to unmotorable roads. The straight roads, huge craters and missing blacktopping are some of the area’s worst problems. 

Anna Nagar West and the roads leading up to Padi seem the worst affected. East Main Road that connects to School Road, Park Road that connects Anna Nagar to Padi and the School Road itself are at best non-traversible.

The roads right behind SBOA School are also in a bad condition.  One doesn’t know if there are craters on the road or if there is a road hidden in them. 

Residents say that once there is rain, the whole area resembles an obstacle course. “There is so much water and slush that it makes it impossible to drive through these roads. We end up playing hide and seek with the ruts and craters, trying to avoid them,” said an exasperated resident. 

That’s how accidents happen. It need not be major, but these roads cause some mishap or the other almost every day, says Siva.  “Most of the time accidents happen not because of the carelessness of drivers or overspeeding, but because most of us swerve at the last minute trying to avoid these craters. And we end up crashing into another vehicle,” he said. 

This is especially true for other arterial roads. Thirteenth Main Road, where all the vehicles have been rerouted to because of the Metro work, proves to be accident prone.