Residents of Velachery West feel left out

The residents of Ward 177 in Velachery West have to grapple with a host of problems in addition to the usual civic issues that plague the city.

Spread over 4.65 kilometres and covering portions of Velachery, Adambakkam and Maduvankarai, the ward’s residents are especially bitter about transport issues such as inadequate bus services, narrow bus route roads, encroachment of roads and importantly lack of bus services.

Though the division has 12 bus route roads, most of the roads are narrow forcing Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) to operate only few bus services.

R. Krishnakumar, a resident of AGS Colony, said residents the locality that houses mostly middle class families have to shell out considerable amounts of money for autos due to inadequate public transport. Despite the Vijay Nagar bus terminus and the Velachery railway station being only a few kilometres away, residents are unable to access these two connecting points to the city through public transport, he said.

The residents are also concerned as these areas fall under the Kancheepuram revenue district, despite being part of the Chennai Corporation for several years now. N.S. Venkatesan, a resident of Mahalakshmi Nagar, rues that even after delimitation (from Tambaram to Velachery constituency), the stamping of postal pincode in Kancheepuram district causes hardships to the residents in getting services such as voter ID cards.

Talking about civic issues, the residents complain about poor garbage collection, lack of a Corporation hospital, voltage fluctuation and the need to fit streetlights with LEDs. The Corporation has failed to improve the Velachery lake by removing encroachments on the southern side and deepen it to accommodate surplus water during the monsoons. While the civic body has been constructing a wall on the northern side of the lake, the residents say the lake requires regular cleaning as it is filled with water hyacinth.

Motorists complained about lack of traffic personnel manning the bus route roads as they are mainly deployed on Velachery Main Road.