Tamil Nadu   

Development works on; problems persist

— Photo: A.Muralitharan

resembling a road: While acknowledging that there were problems related to basic infrastructure, administrators say things are changing. One of the roads in bad shape in Madambakkam town panchayat.

TAMBARAM: Nestled amid greenery and waterbodies, Madambakkam town panchayat is spread over eight square km, making it one of the biggest town panchayats in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

Owing to its vast space, it has been attracting several hundred families migrating from the city to settle there. The doubling of its population from 16,556 in 2001 (according to census) to nearly 35,000 now is only a pointer to this fact.

Originally a village panchayat, comprising Madambakkam, Nuthanchery and Pathuvanchery, it was upgraded as a town panchayat in 1971. There is a flurry of activities in different areas of the town panchayat, but problems are a handful to its elected representatives and administrators, the pressing one being the condition of roads. With residential localities expanding to far-flung areas, new settlers face problems in the form of inadequate basic infrastructure.

The condition of roads in some localities that were formed a couple of years ago is no better. Members of Sridevi and Karumari Nagars and Malladi and Gayathri Gardens Residents Welfare Association submitted a 14-point list of grievances recently to K.Gopal, Commissioner of Town Panchayats.

One of the demands of the association was restoration of the link road connecting Malladi and Gayathri Gardens. Some months ago, residents of Greater Kailash and Parvathy Nagar protested the damage to the already poor roads due to the movement of lorries transporting mud quarried from the dry bed of the Madambakkam Lake, which spreads over 200 acres.

Incidentally, this is among the few lakes in the southern suburbs which still support irrigation. Water from this lake is used to irrigate hundreds of acres.

Another problem faced by residents is the indiscriminate flow of sewage through stormwater drains, resulting in contamination of the waterbodies. For more than a decade now, residents of the SKGM area have been putting up with discharge of sewage from areas elsewhere and this problem worsens during monsoon.

While acknowledging that there were problems related to basic infrastructure, administrators say things are changing. Malliga Mohan, chairperson, said the town panchayat was among the first urban local bodies to provide 100 per cent purified drinking water. It had also put in place an effective solid waste management system where kitchen waste segregated at source was converted into manure through the process of vermin-compost.

The Madambakkam town panchayat boasts nearly 50 parks, the highest in Kancheepuram district. Nothing less than Rs.2 crore is being spent on improving the condition of burial grounds, roads and streets in residential localities. A long -pending demand for carrying out repair works on the Madambakkam Main Road would be fulfilled shortly at the cost of Rs. 25 lakh.

Ms.Malliga said they were increasing the storage capacity of drinking water as part of a plan to provide round-the-clock supply. Tanks at Nuthanchery and Pathuvanchery were taken up for renovation under the Community Based Environment Development Programme.

A community hall was being built at the cost of about Rs.1 crore in Nuthanchery and would be the biggest such government facility in the region.

A total of 600 sodium vapour lamps were installed Rs.1 crore was allocated for this purpose alone. Detailed project report for the much-needed underground drainage project was completed and it was likely to commence next year, Ms. Malliga added.

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