Roads

To enable the development of the Western portion of the Matrimandir Lake the road between the Matrimandir viewing point entrance and Town Hall has been closed from 4 August.

Road construction continues across Auroville, with at least 9 sections of road currently being built. Most of the construction work is being completed by CPWD; Michael Bonke’s team is building one section of the Crown, which starts at Savitri Bhavan and goes towards the PTDC.

The contractors hired by the AVFO and its Auroville Town Development Council began two new major road works immediately before the monsoon, leading again to difficult and potentially dangerous conditions for road users, in particular cyclists.

The RA-WCom informed the community that, after the road accident that tragically took the life of a young volunteer at the road curve near Evergreen, it has approached the relevant authorities to urge them to put in place safety measures and ensure that the speed breakers that have recently been re-installed are adequately marked.

Over the past three years, the government of India, Auroville’s host country, which had been a rather discreet and benevolent partner in previous decades, has decided to precipitate the course of events and intervene vigorously in the Town’s construction.

The planned VIP road will also pass through the existing Auroville dog shelter. The dog shelter team were happy to inform the community that after productive discussions, a compromise could be worked out in which the new access road will be built without destroying any dog enclosures or important infrastructure of the shelter.

In an open letter to the Farm Service, the FO FAMC and the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Auroville farmers raised their concern as to the announcement that three farm areas (Buddha Garden, Siddhartha and Shambala) are to be removed to make place for a road, parking lots and convenience facilities for a planned VIP road, a road which is not mentioned in the gazetted Master Plan.

In response to complaints about poor road quality, the Auroville Earth Institute has clarified that the poured earth concrete road stretch between Certitude and the Solar Kitchen roundabout was made hastily as it had to be opened before the visit of the Prime Minister.

That the visit of Sri Narendra Modi would cause a lot of commotion was to be expected. Just how much became clear by the middle of January, when the Aurovilians found out that access to many roads was blocked, diverting them to dusty bypasses.

It is easy to remember because it hasn’t really changed in 48 years: the same scanty grove of eucalyptus trees; the same flat expanse of fields now dotted with scrawny cashew trees and small, shadeless neems; the same playing fields of Certitude; the same blast of sun that, along with the traffic, grinds the road into a fine dust coating its wayside shrubs from green to a diseased brown.