Hectic activity is on at NTO Kuppam near Tiruvottiyur for the past one week with workers erecting electricity poles, installing overhead cable and fixing electricity meters.
The maintenance staff of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) have been giving finishing touches to the new tenements belonging to the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) at Tiruvottiyur.
The TNSCB is getting more than 1,000 tenements in the city ready for accommodating health workers, migrant labourers and stranded travellers.
“Many nurses and doctors who are residing on the outskirts of the city and are providing medical treatment for COVID-19 patients do not want to go home. They wish to stay within the city. Hence, it was proposed to get ready our new tenements for the Greater Chennai Corporation to use the facility,” said a senior official of the TNSCB. The board has finished construction work in NTO Kuppam near Tiruvottiyur and K P Park in Periamet on a war-footing and has provided water and electricity connections to the tenements in case the civic body or any other government department needs for using them as part of coronavirus preventive measures.
The slum board official said that migrant labourers and other homeless people were housed in temporary shelters without adequate personal distancing.
In case, the civic body wants to house the migrant labourers and homeless people, the tenements could be used.
A senior Tangedco official said all new electricity connections have been stopped, but based on the request of the TNSCB, a large number of electricity staff were pressed into the job of providing power connections to the tenements within a fortnight with senior officials in the northern region directly monitoring the work at the tenements.
