PIL in Madras High Court seeks SOP to ensure Chennai civic bodies work in tandem while digging up roads

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) requiring the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco), and Greater Chennai City Police to work in tandem while digging up city roads.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Wednesday (March 11, 2026) ordered notices to all four authorities and insisted that they file their counter affidavits within two weeks. The orders were passed after hearing the arguments advanced by activist S. Muralidharan who argued his case in person and accused the officials of having a callous attitude.

The petitioner, in his affidavit, stated that the GCC had begun laying stormwater drains in Kottur and Kottur Gardens more than a month ago. He claimed that heavy excavation machinery was used for the work without proper planning, supervision, barricading, or inter-departmental coordination. This had resulted in damage to drinking water pipelines, sewage lines, and electrical lines, he said.

He said, the residents had to suffer from open sewage stagnation and mosquito breeding because of the haphazard execution of the construction work and that the contractors had cut age-old trees and also not laid the road after completing the work. Unfinished stormwater canals with open trenches and protruding steel rods from them posed a danger to everyone passing by, the petitioner complained.

“There was none to manage vehicular traffic during peak hours and it had led to long traffic jams, thereby increasing noise and dust pollution in the locality, in addition to the hardships which the commuters were put through for days together. The damaged roads made the stretch unmotorable and suddenly the roads got blocked when the contractors used tipper trucks to move excavated materials,” he said.

He also said, there was contamination of drinking water and that a CMWSSB engineer had admitted that a drinking water pipeline had been damaged due to the stomwater-laying works. Further, lamenting about distruption of electricity supply too for extended periods due to the damaged underground infrastructure, the petitioner said, complaints made to the Tangedco officials were disregarded.

Stating that the government departments were blaming each other for the plight of the residents, he insisted on issuing a direction to frame an SOP so that they work in tandem in the future. He also sought a direction to the GCC to pay a compensation of ₹1 lakh to every household affected by the month-long ordeal.