Iconic projects elude north Chennai, while most promises stay on paper – Times of India

CHENNAI: Five of the city’s 15 zones together are broadly called north Chennai, and its cup of civic woes is overflowing. Home to about 25% of the city’s population, generating about 20% of city corporation’s revenue and having elected two chief ministers in the past eight years, north Chennai has no iconic civic or infrastructure project to showcase. At this time and age, north Chennai has at least seven ‘manned’ railway level-crossings at Korukkupet, Tondiarpet and Tiruvottiyur. As they have not been replaced with Road Over Bridges (ROB) or vehicular subways, traffic snarls during peak hours is common. In contrast, neither central nor south Chennai have any such level-crossings. In ‘South’ one has to trek Ito Chromepet to see a level-crossing.
Worse, the 10-km Ennore Highway, linking Tiruvottiyur with Central Railway Station directly via Walltax Road and Cochrane Basin Road and running parallel to Tiruvottiyur High Road and Ennore Expressway is chaotic since two ROB projects have not taken shape at all. The arterial road is notorious for rash movement of heavy vehicles headed to container terminals and harbours.

A V S Marimuthu, co-convenor of North Chennai People Rights Federation, said the textile hub of Washermenpet recorded an average sale of `100 crore everyday. “When a ‘Pedestrian Plaza’ can be established at Pondy Bazzar, why should Washermenpet struggle without even proper toilets. There are no auditoriums or sports facilities like what you have got in South Chennai. Despite a ban on hawking, vendors encroach pavements at George Town and Washermenpet,” he said.

In the past 10 odd years, except the Murasoli Maran Park and bridge at Perambur, Herbal Park in Otteri, metro rail extending upto Wimco Nagar, a couple of flyovers and a mofussil bus terminus at Madhavaram, the area has not witnessed any substantial social investment by successive governments.
At Kodungaiyur, residents have learnt to live with the stench, squalor and disease spread by the mega dump yard that has grown into a giant mount in their backyard.
Amudha of R R Nagar says as if the stench was not enough, locals have to battle mosquito menace, inundation and mixing of sewage with drinking water.
Residents of Perambur want a skywalk connecting the railway station and bus terminus.
Former minister and ex-MLA from Royapuram, D Jayakumar, said lack of adequate land availability is a hurdle for iconic projects finding their way into North Chennai. “We will be preparing an exclusive masterplan for uplifting infrastructure facilities North Chennai with a prime focus on addressing traffic issues. We will develop a park that has already been planned by the AIADMK government near Thanga Salai, if voted to power in the local body elections,” he said.
DMK Lok Sabha MP from north Chennai Kalanidhi Veerasamy said the priority is to address the basic issues such as drinking water, drainage, eliminating level-crossings to ease traffic and executing biomining at dump yard in Kodungaiyur. “We have already discussed the issue over ROB with the Southern Railway general manager,” he said, adding that steps have been taken to source funds from the Union Ministry of Urban Development for the biomining project at the Kodungaiyur dump yard.