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After putting up with traffic snarls all over the city, T.SARAVANAN finds Harvey Nagar amazingly decongested.
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ANYBODY WOULD easily agree that most parts of the city today are congested and traffic snarls are the order of the day. But a visit to Harvey Nagar would surprisingly change that opinion.
Endowed with a neat lay out, basic amenities, broad streets, good connectivity to the city, Harvey Nagar beckons one and all. In fact, it was one of the earliest places in the city to get the lay-out cleared by the Town Planning Office in Chennai. Originally the area was earmarked for members of the Madura Mills Employees Cooperative Building Society (MMECBS), formed in 1958.
The society identified 22 acres near Arasaradi and the titleholders agreed to sell the land. But the society faced an uphill task of evicting encroachers and finally had to seek Government's help for doing so.
"The then District Collector Kunjithapatham came forward to help us. He evicted all encroachers and directed his officials to cooperate with us. At that time our society had 96 members. With great difficulty we were able to get our plan cleared. The then Mayor Muthu advised us to go for 40 feet wide road for all the streets. Of 22 acres, we donated 5.5 acres to Madurai Municipality for roads alone. During that time, only our area boasted of board roads," G. Ramakrishnan, founder and then director of MMECBS gives a rapid recount.
The area was well planned with all basic amenities.
It was worked out that cost of each cent of land would be Rs.500.
In the early 60s, this was considered high. The expenditure for carving out the area stood at Rs. five lakhs and the society got the financial assistance from A.E. Cooper, the grandson of the Harveys (Andrew and Greg, founders of Madura Mills).
Perhaps that is why the area came to be known as `Harvey Nagar'.
It had specific areas marked out for playground, park and school. The area was divided into 96 plots according to the needs of the members in break ups of 20 cents, 15, 10 and 7.5 cents.
Welfare activities
The Harvey Nagar Resident's Welfare Association was formed in 1976 and it took to several development activities. "Though we had broad roads, the Corporation black topped only 20 feet road. We have been asking the authorities to convert the metal road into tar road," says P. Subramanian, president, Harvey Nagar Resident's Welfare Association.
Since the area is situated on the riverbed the ground water level stands at 65 feet even during summer. But the area has good drinking water supply. "All houses have water connections but the pressure is very low as the line takes a circuitous route instead of bringing it directly from the nearby point. This is a real cause of worry," shares A. Umaiorubahan, vice-president of the association.
Interestingly, though the Department of Posts, Electricity Board and other departments have accepted the name `Harvey Nagar', the name has not been approved by the Revenue Department. On Revenue records, the area is still shown as Technical School West 9,10,11 and 12 streets, which irks the residents. "Even though the Council has passed a resolution to change the revenue records, people at the helm delay it. The matter is pending approval of higher authorities in Chennai.
`Thanks to Bedi'
But we need to thank the past Corporation Commissioner Gangandeep Singh Bedi for providing underground drainage facility and converting 24 out of 36 street lights to sodium vapour lamps," says R. Radhe Shyam, association secretary.
With four security personnel guarding the area round-the-clock, Harvey Nagar is a haven for its145 residing families.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Madurai
Mangalore
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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