Coimbatore residents take to social media to highlight bad roads

Fed up with the bad roads in Karumbukkadai, a local youth group has taken to social media to highlight the problem.

The group that has come under the Happy Theatre banner on Facebook has announced a photography contest for the residents of the area – those who come under Wards 75 and 86. It asked the residents to click and post photographs of bad, damaged roads in the area.

“The objective of launching the contest was to give a platform for the residents to vent their grievances regarding bad roads,” says S. Mohamed Siyad, one of the Happy Theatre members. The residents had petitioned the authorities concerned for long but were not getting relief.

And, the use of roads has increased in the past few months as motorists drive through Karumbukkadai to avoid getting caught in the traffic snarl and bypass the Ukkadam flyover construction area.

Since it announced the contest on September 5, the group has received good response from the residents, so much so that it has extended the deadline for submission to September 21.

“It group’s page on Facebook received over 100 photographs,” Mr. Siyad says.

After announcing the contest, the Happy Theatre group did not campaign offline or inform residents. The entire campaigning happened online by tagging people. It is the residents who spread the message.

As part of the photography contest, the group asked residents to post photographs of garbage lying on roads and overflowing from bins as well. It also shared an e-mail address for people to mail the photographs.

S. Nishad, a resident of Azad Nagar Second Street, says he participated in the contest by posting a photograph of the badly damaged Azad Nagar Main Road.

The road and several others were damaged more than two months ago after the Coimbatore Corporation started the underground drainage work.

The civic body dug pits but failed to close those immediately.

The rain only made things worse as a few of those pits turned into wells, brimming with water. The pits, earth removed from pits, reduced carriage way and slush only made things worse for the residents, he adds. It was to highlight the problems the residents faced everyday that he posted the pictures, Mr. Nishad adds.

Whether his entry wins a prize – a T-shirt – will be known after September 21, says Mr. Siyad and adds that on September 22 there will be a photography exhibition.

Coimbatore Corporation officials say they are unaware of any such contest. The Corporation is, however, filling potholes in Ward 86. It will also repair damaged roads in Karumbukkadai.