The Chennai Corporation has opened three more night shelters for the homeless people in the city.
With this, the number of such facilities set up by the civic body has gone up to six. The Corporation proposes to open six more shelters by October 31. This was conveyed at a review meeting of the implementation of the Supreme Court directive on homeless issue in Tamil Nadu at the Secretariat here on Wednesday.
The three new shelters are in Ayyappa Nagar, Koyambedu; Cox Colony, Chintadripet and Ibrahim Salai in Vallal Seethakadhi Nagar. The old facilities are in Kodungaiyur, Kannnapar Thidal and Thattankulam. The total number of night shelters needed in the city is 66, according to the directive.
According to the Supreme Court directive, the civic body should have opened 10 shelters by December 2010. The corporation has identified 20 locations for creating night shelters in the city.
According to data available with the Chennai Corporation, the number of homeless people in the city is 11,116. A total of nine buildings have been readied with basic amenities by the Chennai Corporation for running night shelters.
The shelters would come up in areas such as Kumaraswamy Nagar North, Old Washermenpet, Sembium, Egmore, Saligramam, KK Nagar and Mylapore.
Civil society meetings are also being conducted for identification of locations for the shelters. October 31 has been set as the new deadline for the creation of night shelters.
