A visitor to the police station on New Colony Main Road in Adambakkam has to watch his steps and mind his head.
The police station is low-lying, its flooring located two feet below the road surface. The main doorway is too low and even someone of average height cannot walk in with his ‘head held high’. This police station has an interesting history: it was inaugurated by actor Sivaji Ganesan in 1970. The station had been funded by a private trust, which also provided the land.
The station has failed to build on this impressive start. It still functions from a hut with mud brick walls and a thatched roof, and is only 200 sq.ft. in size.
Two inspectors, 20 sub-inspectors and 58 constables including women are deputed at the station, which looks into both law and order and criminal cases.
“The police station lacks all basic facilities including water taps, toilets, separate rest rooms for men and women constables and a visitors’ hall. During monsoon, the station gets flooded,” said a police officer.
Inside the station, a small pathway has been converted into a reception desk where a woman constable records crime reports and visitors’ enquiries.
Behind the pathway, there are two small rooms, each of which can accommodate a chair, a table and a cupboard. A small space within each of these rooms has been created for detaining suspects and petty offenders before they are taken to the Madipakkam police station, around 5 km from the Adambakkam station, and the nearest station with a lock-up facility. As the station is located a few feet below the road level, it gets heavily water-logged during the monsoon and the staff have to wade through waist-deep water. Key crime records and files get wet due to seepage from the leaky thatched roof of the station, say the police personnel.
Adambakkam is one of the 15 police stations under the St. Thomas Mount police district.
Most of the police stations including Chitlapakkam, Sankar Nagar, Tambaram, Pallavaram and Chromepet function in concrete structures or rented buildings. Every month, on an average, more than 500 cases are recorded at the station. In the space around the hut-like structure, seized vehicles have been dumped.
