To cater to the housing needs of families dependent on the industrial clusters of Madhavaram and Manali, the city’s planning agency — then known as Madras Metropolitan Development Authority, planned to develop Mathur, now in ward no. 19 of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
A village panchayat coming under Puzhal Panchayat Union in Tiruvallur until its merger with Chennai Corporation in 2011, there has been, according to residents, a visible improvement in the condition of roads.
“They were all battered, even long after the monsoon. Drivers of Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses would at times stop well ahead of the last bus stop. All that has changed now and we have buses at least to the important junctions,” says B. Dharani, a Mathur resident and civil engineer. For most residents, the merger with the Corporation was a wise move by the government as it hastened the creation of basic infrastructure — parks, gymnasiums, children’s centres, improvement in water and power supply and better solid waste management.
However, there are some other persistent problems multiple government agencies are unable to tackle. The cremation shed on the margins of the sprawling Mathur lake is one such instance. There is neither a fully covered shed, nor has a proper chimney been installed. As the cremation takes place very close to Kamarajar Salai, the smoke and dust is swept into homes around it, causing inconvenience to residents. The parking of lorries on the road margins is another nuisance the government agencies have not been able to stop, they said.
Residents’ complain that a number of buildings constructed from tax-payers’ funds have been left abandoned — for instance the community centre on M.M.D.A 2 Main Road. They said the community hall has not been used even once ever since it was built 20 years ago. “The land is not in our control and we have been asking CMDA to hand over the land to us so that we can renovate it and use it for organising events,” said K. Parthipan, ward councillor. He said in the past five years, their thrust was on road improvement, creation of parks and opening additional Children’s Centres. Residents said a police station and fire station too abandoned after the structure was completed.
