For years, visitors to the existing Revenue Divisional Office (RDO), near TI Cycles company in Ambattur Old Town (OT), on the Chennai – Tiruvallur High (CTH) Road, have had to deal with poor facilities. Some of them are cramped seating, non-functional water taps, unclean toilets and lack of ramps for the disabled.
This is likely to end soon. The new Rs 1.5 crore, single-storey RDO building in Anna Nagar on the Ambattur Industrial Estate Road has been completed by the buildings wing of the Public Works Department (PWD) and is ready for inauguration. The new building, government sources said, has been handed over to the revenue department by the PWD for its opening.
Located on the intersection of Padi Kuppam Road and the School Road junction, the new revenue building has been built in a 6,000 sq. ft. space with a spacious parking area for visitors and officials. The new building comprises a large visitors waiting hall with a help desk, a record room, a store room, a computer office, a rest room for the RDO staff and separate toilets for men, women and the disabled.
The first floor consists of a spacious hearing hall for visitors’ petitions, a separate room for the RDO, a conference hall and a common office room for other officials. Both floors of the building have adequate water facilities.
Special ramps have also been constructed for the disabled. In order to dispense official duties and also to make the office of the RDO available round-the-clock especially during emergencies, a three-bedroom independent quarters have also been built inside the new RDO building premises covering a space of 2,000 sq. ft. for the revenue divisional officer.
“Unlike the existing RDO office in Ambattur, the new building is located on the busy stretch of a posh neighbourhood. It can be easily located by first-time visitors,” said a government official.
Hundreds of visitors throng the existing RDO office at Ambattur every day, which shares a building with the Ambattur Taluk Office.
Due to the space crunch, the existing RDO office has to function with limited staff and can entertain only a handful of visitors.
The office provides various services including issuing house site pattas, land assignment, transferring of pattas, issuing pension under Old Age Pension (OAP) scheme, PHP, DWP, DDWP and DALP schemes. The RDO office also issues heir certificates, nativity certificates and community certificates. “Several people from the rural areas lying outside the city’s outskirts visit the RDO office daily. With its added facilities, the new building will be a boon for them,” said K. Sathiyavani, a resident of Anna Nagar.
