The road works on the Crown have been resumed by the Office of the Secretary’s ‘ATDC’ and the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), this unauthorized and dubious work is being conducted without any safety measures. The bonafide Working Committee has sent to the Governing Board the letter below:
Respected Chairman of the Governing Board R.N. Ravi and members of the Governing Board of the Auroville
Foundation,
We would like to bring to your attention yet another urgent and important matter, which affects the safety and
security of Auroville residents and their children.
The few residents working for the Office of the Secretary have announced, on the 26th November 2022, that the
works on the Crown road would resume shortly. For months, the said roads had been dismantled at several
locations, creating concern for the safety of residents. This concern has tremendously increased over the last few
days.
Since the work has resumed, the roads have continued to be dismantled and now most portions of the Crown
have been blocked. Deviations are being improvised along existing cycle paths, which have been opened to
4-wheeler circulation by those working for the Office of the Secretary, and several accidents have been reported
since the start of the works. These existing cycle paths are used daily by children on their way to school, and the
Auroville School Board as well as many parents have expressed severe concern for the safety of the children.
All these roads have been closed simultaneously while the works could have been phased. Closing only the
necessary stretches at a time would have minimized the safety hazard that is high in a monsoon season, and the
difficulties created for any emergency movement including ambulance and other health-related movement. No
announcements on a final date have been made, and we observe that since July existing well-functioning road
sections of the Crown have been dismantled without proper explanations nor reconstruction for more than 4
months.
In addition, this work on the Crown is in contravention of the Residents’ Assembly’s decision and resolution
number RAD/01/2022 of January 2022, which directed “to pause all clearing, infrastructure laying and permanent
construction work on the Right of Ways of Crown, Radials and Outer Ring in order to enable the community to
define a way forward for Auroville’s development.”
Kindly intervene at the earliest to avoid further accidents from happening, which may create high risks for the lives
of Auroville residents and their children.
Sincerely,
The Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly of the Auroville Foundation
Aravinda Maheshwari, Chali Grinnell, Hemant Lamba, Ilayabharathy Somasundaram, Maël Shanti Vidal, Sauro
Mezzetti, Valli Senthilkumar
Auroville Services Mail to Chairman & GB Safety and security issues