Access to road register can be a tool for better footpaths

Residents can use the data in some of the 21 registers maintained at each ward office by the junior engineers of Chennai Corporation to work towards restoring footpaths. However, visits to a number of ward offices reveal that such registers are not complete or updated. Senior officials of the Chennai Corporation said a complete data set of a simple four-page road register could be used by residents or pedestrians effectively to examine the condition of the footpaths to facilitate restoration before the civic body implements major capital works on footpaths. “We are unable to maintain roadwar register (road register) properly because of the shortage of staff. We...