As part of its efforts to rejuvenate the Cooum, the Chennai Corporation will start demolishing auto service shops along the river in Pudupet this week. It plans to develop a park on the stretch.
Hundreds of automobile service shops will be shifted to an alternative site at Appur near Singaperumal Koil, over 50 km away, to facilitate the Integrated Cooum River Ecorestoration Project.
“Development of a wall has started on South Cooum River Road. We have permitted the shops to remove their machinery. Demolition will begin this week,” said Mantri Govinda Rao, Deputy Commissioner (Works), Greater Chennai Corporation.
“We will take initiatives to safeguard the livelihood of the persons affected by the project,” he assured. Already, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board officials have started conducting camps in the Pudupet neighbourhood, guiding shopkeepers on the resettlement and rehabilitation of project-affected persons.
Operations suspended
P. Ayyanar, 65, a shopkeeper on South Cooum River Road, said that automobile services have stopped work in the past 10 days owing to the shifting of operations out of Pudupet.
“People who need affordable services for their automobiles visit the area. Any work on an automobile is done at 30% of the actual cost in a service outlet. Thousands of cab drivers depend on the area,” he said.
To be sure, not all the spares sold in Pudupet are genuine.
After the Corporation announced the demolition of the shops last week, most of the workers in Ayyanar’s shop have left their jobs.
“The Public Works Department (PWD) allotted the area to us in the 1970s. We have been paying rent. We are ready to shift to an alternative site. But the alternative site has not been developed yet. We will have to suspend operations for three to six months before building another shop in Appur, which is 56 km away. Many of us may lose our livelihood,” said Ashok Kumar, a shopkeeper.
I. Panneerselvam, a shopkeeper operating out of South Cooum River Road, said they were willing to move out of the Pudupet area.
Waiting for site
“We have been waiting for the government to offer an alternative site for our business for the past nine years. We were very happy when the government announced that it will offer a developed area for our business in 2009. But the project was delayed. As a result, we have to pay additional money for plot allocation,” said Mr. Panneerselvam.
In 2009, the DMK government wanted the shops to be shifted as the new Secretariat-Assembly complex was close by. But the AIADMK government converted the complex it into a multi super specialty hospital and the proposal was put on the back burner.
With the revival of the project, Pudupet is likely to lose its uniqueness, say residents of the locality.
