An industrial estate under neglect

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, OCT. 9. Being one of the first of its kind in the State has not made Thiru-vi-Ka industrial estate, better known as Guindy industrial estate, an automatic choice for better maintenance, leave alone further development.

Created almost forty years ago as a trendsetter, the estate housing small and tiny industrial units today is a shambles, with not even one of its aspects worth emulation.

Bad roads, encroachments, poor lighting, ineffective stormwater drainage network, name any aspect of bad housekeeping, it is part of the estate, which was originally meant to locate engineering units.

The estate provides a mixed trend of industrial activity with software units setting up their bases on the one hand, while on the other several of the units are being converted into godowns.

Though resigned to the continued neglect, the unit holders are attaching considerable importance to the ensuing local bodies polls. At least, it would provide an opportunity to them to air their grievances.

Interestingly, Mr. N. Damodaran of the DMK (Ward 140), the outgoing councillor, resides in a housing colony within the estate.

Unlike other areas, which are directly under the control of the Corporation, the estate is ``nobody's baby'' as the responsibility of tending to it lies with both the civic body as also the Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO), the unit holders lament. The entrepreneurs pay two per cent of their annual rental value to the Corporation and four per cent to SIDCO.

Says Mr. A. Shanmugavelayuthan, general secretary of Tamilnadu Small and Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA), ``despite being a huge revenue earner for the Corporation (the unit holders pay Corporation, water, property, profession taxes and Corporation licence fee besides maintenance charges to SIDCO), the maintenance is almost nil. For SIDCO, the charges paid is enough to meet expenses of their maintenance office and its staffers''.

At several points across its 404 acre extent, mounds of uncleared garbage lie accumulated. A substantial chunk of it has also been usurped for parking lorries or encroached by shops. Contributing to the bad shape of the roads is the Metrowater filling station inside the estate.

Though a police station is located within the estate, the place is not safe. Thefts are common. Put together, the units in the estate employ around 20,000 people of whom nearly 15,000 are women. However, this has not been matched with quality drinking water and toilet facilities for the workforce, points out Mr. K. V. Kanakambaram, president, Industrial Estate Manufacturers' Association, Guindy.Even while pleading for the transfer of the estate maintenance to the Corporation, the entrepreneurs feel that it is time that the Industrial Township Act, under which an authority would be constituted, should be notified.

Mr. M. S. Parthasarathy, president of the National Confederation of Small Industry, says the previous DMK regime was indifferent to these issues, including one relating to cost-escalation of the units allotted at the SIDCO multi-storied Electronic Complex. Things have reached a stage, where unit holders in the complex are even ready to hand back their keys to SIDCO.

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Section  : Southern States
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