Buildings that housed school classrooms are gradually turning into office spaces for the Chennai Corporation and government agencies. Yet another school building is all set to fall a prey to the Corporation’s drive to develop new offices in the city.
The civic body has prepared estimates for demolition of a school building on Strahans Road in north Chennai and the construction of space for the zonal office at Thiru.Vi. Ka Nagar.
Over 14,880 square metres of office space will be developed at a cost of Rs.7.95 crore on the school premises that was closed a few years ago following the civic body’s decision to merge schools with fewer students.After the closure of 30 Chennai Corporation schools in 2009 by the then DMK government, Opposition parties, including the AIADMK, objected to the decision. The Corporation subsequently announced that the vacant school buildings would be used only for the purpose of educating the weaker sections. But most of the new officials of the civic body, unaware of the opposition in 2009, have started identifying such closed schools for use as office space. Some of the merged schools, including those in Chintadripet, have also been converted into the office of a government department.