Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

It's a bumpy ride to Nanganallur

By R. Sujatha

CHENNAI SEPT. 4. A trip to Nanganallur, a well-known but largely neglected suburb, might leave one high and dry. The MTC runs three buses to the Anjaneyar temple through Saidapet, of which one is from the T. Nagar terminus. There is only one service (route no. 52 L) between New Colony at Adambakkam and the temple. A commuter, who misses a service will have to either wait for half an hour or more or hire an autorickshaw, and settle for a bumpy and an extremely expensive ride.

Most of the stretch is dirt track and the night showers create puddles. The TNGO Colony Main Road and all by-lanes leading from this road are a stretch of slush but two-wheeler riders manage to ride through it. All shops on this road have a clientele and a friendly resident might call out to a rider to be careful. This road is an ideal bus route road as it is wider than the Lake View Road and the New Colony Road of Adambakkam, where bigger vehicles must wait for traffic to clear before taking the narrow lanes.

Autorickshaws are rickety and do not have meter. A ride to the temple costs Rs. 30 though shopkeepers assert that it should cost only Rs. 10. One resident said the trip should not cost more than Rs. 5! There is more civic misery for residents of the area. At the junction of the Thillai Ganga Nagar 1st Main Road and 4th Main Road from a vacant plot, the Alandur municipality van picks up garbage collected from various parts of the municipality.

The walls of the plot have been whitewashed and the entrance to the plot is from the 4th Main Road. The municipality tricycles sometimes empty their vehicle by the broken wall of the plot on the 1st Main Road.

At Nanganallur many vacant plots have become garbage-dumping yard. Vendors have encroached on 10th Street of TG Nagar and set up makeshift shops. They use the vacant plot next to the Raghavendra temple, as a dump for rotting vegetables and plastic waste.

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