Chairman Vasudevan Nagar Residents Welfare Association will impart skills to its residents that will help them deal with difficult situations arising from natural disasters.
As part of this initiative, the Association will carry out an enumeration of its residents. A data bank will be created and this will have details about the number of senior-citizens, differently-abled, expectant mothers and ailing residents at Chairman Vasudevan Nagar, which is located off Jawaharlal Nehru Salai in Jaffarkhanpet.
The colony was one of the worst-affected areas in the December 2015 floods.
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The Association was inaugurated on June 3 this year by MLA V. N. Virugai Ravi of Virugambakkam Constituency.
The other immediate goals of the newly-formed Association are: ensuring garbage piled up along the banks of the Adyar is cleared and the river de-silted, a park is created on a parcel of land near Vasudevan Nagar, and small buses are operated though the neighbourhood.
The Association points out a compound wall along the causeway over the Adyar is a long-pending demand. There were iron grills along the causeway which were washed away in the December 2015 floods.
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“In the absence of a compound wall along the causeway, it is dangerous for both pedestrians and motorists. Recently, two fatal accidents took place on the causeway. In both the cases, the victims tripped and fell into the river.
As the river is full of sludge, the fire and rescue services personnel could not rescue them. Had there been a compound wall, such an untoward incident would not have happened,” says S. Vijaykumar, the Association’s secretary.
‘Park needed’
The new Association is planning to approach the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to have a park created near Vasudevan Nagar. "As per the layout of our colony, there was a piece of land meant for creation of a park. However, that land was taken over for the CMRL project. Now, our residents go to parks in K.K. Nagar and Ashok Nagar. Those parks are not at a walkable distance from our colony. We use our vehicles and or hire an auto to go there,” says D. Thirunakkarasu, president of the Association.
Small buses
The Association is also making efforts to ensure small buses are operated in its locality.
“There are no MTC bus stops near Chairman Vasudevan Nagar. Again, we have to go up to Ashok Nagar or K.K. Nagar to board MTC buses. So, we need small buses connecting these stops and the Metro Rail station stop at Ashok Pillar," says Rekha Harikrishnan, vice-president of the Association.
Besides installation of a CCTV surveillance system, identity cards and labels for vehicles, bearing the name of the Association, will be issued to the residents with the objective of scaling up the security in the neighbourhood, say office-bearers.
According to the office-bearers, there are 154 houses at Chairman Vasudevan Nagar.
The Association has formed a WhatsApp group for its residents and another meant only for the office-bearers.
The Association's email ID is cvnrwa@gmail.com