Greater Chennai Corporation ward 59 covering neighbourhoods such as Park Town derives its civic character from congested commercial areas and large slums.
Residents report civic problems such as pollution caused by metallurgical industrial units, sewage overflow, insufficient drinking water and indiscriminate dumping of garbage on roads.
Hundreds of commercial units located in the ward supply material such as gold ornaments, silver articles and steel products to other parts of the Chennai Metropolitan Area. At least 3,000 jewellery -making units, mostly operating in buildings modified without permission from planning agencies, and located in Edapalayam, are said to be the drivers of the industry. As many as 1100 Bengali families are the key contributors to jewellery business in the area. Many of the jewellery residents purchase from major retail outlets in areas such as T.Nagar are sourced from the area.
Similarly, stainless steel utensils are manufactured by more than 400 commercial units in the neighbourhood of Wall Tax Road. This is one of the causes of pollution in many of the narrow lanes of the ward, said V.Balaji, a resident.
A chunk of the residents in the ward are from slum neighbourhoods.
Sathyavanimuthu Nagar, one of the largest slums with at least 8700 voters, continues to report civic challenges on a daily basis. Many of the families who have voting rights do not have ration cards. Students of the slum are unable to get community certificate to pursue higher education after completion of plus two. The slum is located on defence land.
Corporation councillor N.Nagamani said the civic body has completed 252 civic infrastructure development works in the past five years at a cost of Rs.12.57 crore. Residents of the ward were the first to protest against dumping of garbage on roads a few years ago. The protest led to hiring of additional workers on daily wages for garbage collection.
