The city's western gateway, Valasaravakkam, remained a sleepy village till about the 1980s. Due to its location on the fringes, development took place at a slow pace until improvements to Arcot Road kicked off a residential boom. Though the farmlands have made way for apartments and commercial complexes, basic necessities remain beyond the reach of a majority of the residents.
The merger of the municipality with Chennai Corporation and subsequent formation of Valasaravakkam Zone has made the residents look forward to development at a much faster pace.
K.Kaliamurthy of Bethania Nagar Residents' Association in Valasaravakkam says: “The population profile is no different from the city. Yet, there is not even one municipal garbage dump site in Valasaravakkam. It just lays strewn on the road. Public sanitation is a nightmare. Water supply is erratic and available for only one hour every alternate day”.
However, residential pockets with high literacy rates have started demanding parks, playgrounds and shopping malls that might worsen traffic congestion. The municipality lacked funds for any of these and the merger with the Corporation was keenly awaited, he says.
Valasaravakkam zone has been created by merging two municipalities – Valasaravakkam and Maduravoyal -- and three panchayats. It has a total of 2,04,337 voters and of this, 1,05,213 are men and 99,112 women. In the narrow dusty bylanes of Nerkundram or the flood-prone areas of Maduravoyal, the prevailing mood seems to be a mix of alienation and anticipation.
Many feel left behind in the dash towards development. S.Vellaichamy, a Ward Councillor of the Nerkundram Panchayat, which has been brought under the zone, says that most localities are connected only by mud roads, rendering them unusable during the rains. Nearly 90 per cent of the zone is not connected to the underground sewer network. “Many just divert household sewage into nearby stormwater drains,” he says.
Others have to build a sump in their house and pay Rs.700 to 800 to truckers to clear one load. “Waste disposal has become a thriving business,” says Mr. Vellaichamy.
Nerkundram, which was one of the largest panchayats in the State, has little or no bus connectivity. “This is the situation despite the panchayat's population being 1.5 lakh. Residents in many areas have to walk for four km to reach a bus stop. It seems as if we live in a remote village.”
He cites fund crunch as the major reason as to why corrective measures have not been undertaken till now. Nerkundram, being a panchayat, over Rs.3 crore was allocated in the last fiscal as part of the rural employment guarantee scheme. None of it was utilised. No fund allocation was made to lay new roads. “We have been suffering for 10 years. I hope things will change. Local representatives should also be more public service minded,” Mr. Vellaichamy adds.
A.Sundaram, a long-time resident of Maduravoyal, says that every day, life is a torture. “There are mountains of garbage everywhere. The contractor gets paid for each tonne of garbage collected but he has no obligation to clear every day. The problem turned so bad that our [Maduravoyal] constituency MLA Beema Rao had to raise it in the Assembly.”
“When you approach officials with a problem, they say authorities in another municipality division are responsible. There is no centralised authority,” says Mr.Sundaram. Rampant encroachments such as those on Maduravoyal Lake also do not help their cause. Since unplanned layouts have come up rapidly, authorities are reluctant to provide sewerage or water connections. Mr.Sundaram also complains about the lack of bus services on Aalapakkam Main Road, the link between Arcot Road and Poonamallee High Road.
Salman Javed, a traffic consultant and a resident of Porur, says that important infrastructure projects such as the Porur flyover have been dragging on for years. “The environment has also been thoroughly degraded. On any day you can see garbage dumped on either side on Mount Poonamallee Road, which is a major arterial. Much of it ends up on the Porur Lake as well. But the fact is that the municipal structure also does not have the resources. The Chennai Corporation may do a better job. We are all hopeful.”
