While new roads welcome the residents of Pazhavanthangal and surrounding areas, the old problems of burgeoning traffic and inundation of subways are yet to be attended. Nanganallur and Pazhavanthangal were merged with Chennai Corporation in 2011 with an aim to provide urban infrastructure for the suburban Alandur Municipality.
Despite the Chennai Corporation taking several steps to prevent rainwater stagnation by constructing stormwater drains and increasing the height of the roads, the streets still ended up being flooded last year. N. Nagalakshmi of College Road says that though the Chennai Corporation officials and elected representatives are responsive in addressing day-to-day problems, voltage fluctuation remains a problem and Tangedco has not done anything to solve the problem.
She said the merger with the Corporation has brought in significant changes, including black-topped roads, new streetlights, and street name boards. However, there is no daily water supply.
As roads have become higher after repeated re-laying, water enters the old houses in the area, easily flooding them. The Corporation should address this problem too, residents said.
In the past three years, 50 concrete roads and 35 bitumen roads have been laid. To address the drinking water problem, an Amma Kudineer hub has been created at 29th Street, Nanganallur.
At present, families of three wards utilise the 16,000 litres per day-capacity unit there and once the other units become functional, every household would get 20 litres of Amma Kudineer per day, officials said. For the benefit of the poor, two Amma Unavagams are operational in the ward.
