Defence News
Engineers’ Garrison, CRPF locked in a battle over a key road in Avadi
Two years ago, when the Army’s Main Battle Tank (MBT) trundled through CRPF Main Road in Avadi, damaging it, two central government agencies — Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Engineers’ Garrison of the Ministry of Defence — locked horns over “who will lay the road”.
Technically, CRPF Main Road — named after the CRPF’s training institute located on one end of the stretch — belongs to the Engineers’ Garrison.
The latter maintains several vacant lands under its control and also key stretches that connect vital defence establishments in the neighbourhood.
CRPF, on the other hand, uses the road like any resident in the neighbourhood would.More importantly, the link road helps CRPF conduct many activities at the institute, enabling it to transport its trainee policemen to the parade ground.
“The road also helps officials of central government organisations. They have to use the stretch to reach Avadi, which is around 6 km from the CRPF Institute,” points out K. Mathi, a resident of Avadi.
The 60-feet-wide CRPF Main Road has two different sides, each measuring approximately 30 feet. One side is bitumen-topped and used by motorists, including MTC buses and residents from CRPF Colony, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Brindavan Nagar in Avadi.
The other half — which is also 30 feet wide — is laid with concrete stones to allow MBTs to reach their testing ground, located near the CRPF Institute on the stretch and also to allow chain-wheeled tanks to drive smoothly on the stretch.
However, due to vibrations caused by movement of tanks (on the other side) and continuous movement of other vehicles have damaged the bitumen-topped portion of the road over the years, resulting in potholes.
Every day, on an average, a series of MBTs, especially T-90 tanks, do at least 30 trial runs between the Engine Factory of the Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) and the trail ground of Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) premises in the neighbourhood.
Incidentally, a few years ago, after much hesitation, the CRPF re-laid the bitumen portion of the road citing public interest, including the need to ensure the safe journey of its trainee policemen. This was done after prior permission from the Engineers Garrision.
However, the road ran into the ground after the 2015 floods and the 2016 cyclone. Despite repeated requests by residents, the bitumen stretch was not re-laid.
Although, a few months ago, the stretch with concrete stones was re-laid by the Defence Ministry as trial MBTs suffered huge damage due to unevenness of the stretch.
However, Defence Ministry has not laid the bitumen portion of the stretch. With no permanent solution in sight, the CRPF levelled the potholed portion of the stretch with construction debris a few days ago.
