The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A truck terminal loaded with lack of amenities

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Friday, Jul 18, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A truck terminal loaded with lack of amenities

K.Lakshmi

Madhavaram municipal officials say they have no sufficient funds to maintain such a large facility

— Photo: V.Ganesan

Far from comfortable: In the absence of a black-topped road, lorries plying into the Madhavaram Truck Terminal leave a trail of dust. .

CHENNAI: It has been over two decades since the Madhavaram Truck Terminal was established. But the traders and lorry drivers there continue to grapple with problems as a result of lack of basic amenities.

Though the terminal, spread over 80 acres, serves as a hub for lorry transport in the city, the roads lack black-topping. Vehicles that enter the terminal kick up clouds of dust spoiling the ambient air quality and posing health hazards to the people.

The terminal houses warehouses including one of the Central Warehousing Corporation. V.G.Jeyakumar, secretary of the CMDA Truck Terminal Complex Welfare Association said the terminal was a place used by hundreds of heavy vehicles come every day either as a stopover or to get their next assignment. The space, however, is proving to be inadequate with the increase in the number of vehicles, resulting in many of the lorries being parked on the Inner Ring Road or GNT Road.

The allottees at the terminal, totalling 185 and including lorry booking agents, were assured of basic amenities such as drinking water, sewer network and streetlights when they were allocated space in 1986. But, many of these facilities are yet to be provided, Mr.Jeyakumar said.

The association members pointed out that though an overhead tank was constructed for drinking water, it lay neglected for over two decades.

Besides a proper exit, the terminal also lacks streetlights making the vehicles vulnerable to thefts.

The association’s president M.Vasudevan said they maintained the terminal with the available fund. “We spend about Rs.1 lakh to maintain the vast area providing facilities such as security, drinking water for truck drivers and sewage disposal,” he said.

On an average, about 500 lorries come to the terminal daily. While Rs.20 for a day is collected as parking fee for from -wheelers, Rs.30 is collected from the larger vehicles. About Rs.40 lakh is paid to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), which developed the place, as toll fee collection every year.

Responding to the complaints, an official of CMDA said that the Authority developed and allotted space. The terminal was handed over to the Madhavaram municipality for maintenance and provision of basic infrastructure, including parks.

However, officials of the Madhavaram Municipality said that they did not have sufficient funds to maintain such a large facility. Measures were being taken to provide streetlights to the area. Even if 50 per cent of the annual toll fee collected was diverted to the local body, the local body can improve the maintenance, an official said.

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