You are walking down the street and suddenly hear a screeching sound. The motorist makes a turn at the corner, does see children playing, swerves the vehicle and injures many. These are cases we hear about a lot these days.

But most often, we do not understand that visibility around the curve at the edge of the road or intersection should be made perfect by tapered widening so that such accidents can be avoided.

This curve is splay or tapered widening, according to the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act and the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Act 1981.

At Parsn Sesh Nestle Campus in Nanjundapuram Road, Ward 75, this tapered widening was ignored. Licensed building surveyor and resident of the complex S. Kanagasundaram filed petitions before the Corporation and Local Planning Authority (LPA) who issued Notices to five houses in the Parsn to correct the corners of their house as per Section 56 and 57 of Town and Country Planning Act.

The petitioner told Covai Post that splay is very important as it provides the visibility to the driver before he or she turns the corner and avoid an accident. “People must remember that it is for the welfare of others. I had to depend on the law to enforce it. It is responsibility of the promoter to make sure that splay is properly implemented in houses. Such a thing makes the entire sanctioned plan defective,” he says. Kanagasundaram chastised the cavalier attitude of the corporation officials who undertook inspections and said they need to be more vigilant.

K Vijayakumar from Parsn Group responded: “There is no splay in the plan sanctioned by the authorities”. Though the roads inside the campus in group housing were built before the Corporation of Act 1981, Kanagasundaram argued that even if approved plan does not show splay, as per the District Municipalities Act of 1920, it should be enforced.

One of the residents who was issued the notice, refused to comment, when contacted by Covai Post.

This is not an issue limited to Coimbatore. Officials in Chennai Corporation claim that among 1,000 multi-storeyed buildings approved by CMDA, a mere 5-10 per cent meets splay requirement. Though splay might a part of the approved plan, areas are encroached by unauthorised commercial units.

They also reported that currently around 60,000 buildings do not include splay. A senior official in CMDA in a statement said that while notice can be sent by the local body in respect of residential or commercial building above three floors, practically no suo motu action is taken to correct this. The reason is because of the high number of violators.