Date:12/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/12/stories/2008091259330300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Proximity to city hardly gets Maduravoyal freedom from burgeoning civic woes zone in

K.Lakshmi

— Photo: K.Pichumani

ROUGH RIDE: Motorists often use the dug-up stretch of Poonamallee High Road in Maduravoyal to avoid heavy traffic.

CHENNAI: Its proximity to the city has made Maduravoyal a preferred destination for settlers. This despite the unmotorable roads and absence of basic amenities that make life miserable for residents of this third-grade municipality located close to Koyambedu.

Every day hundreds of goods carriers and passenger vehicles go via Maduravoyal on National Highway-4 Road (Poonamallee High Road) that connects the city with Bangalore and Mumbai. Thus, the road is notorious for heavy traffic despite bumpy stretches between Maduravoyal and Vanagaram.

Residents complain that their travel through the only major link road to the city gets slowed down owing to the movement of these long-distance vehicles. A road-widening project undertaken in the area by the National Highway Authority of India has been delayed by over a year now. Another ambitious project coming up in the area is the elevated corridor connecting Chennai Port and Maduravoyal.

Though the municipality has upgraded over the past few decades from a cluster of villages with agriculture as their main occupation to a fast-developing area, this has not been matched with infrastructural development. The population of the 15 wards of Maduravoyal Municipality is estimated at about 1 lakh.

With most of the localities in the municipality on a low level, inundation during monsoon is a common problem. A drive through the interior roads of the residential localities such as MMDA Colony, Mettukuppam, Metro Nagar and Seemathamman Nagar reveal the two major problems for the residents of the local body — heaps of garbage strewn on street corners and potholed roads.

Residents of Seemathamman Nagar said though garbage disposal had been privatised in eight wards, garbage often remained uncleared from street corners for want of manpower and a proper disposal yard.

R.Ramadoss, honorary president of Maduravoyal MMDA Colony Residents’ Welfare Association, said the water supplied by the municipality was erratic and of poor quality.

“We buy drinking water from private suppliers at Rs.3 a pot.”

He also complained that the area lacked proper drainage network and the two major lakes in Alappakkam and Maduravoyal are polluted and heavily encroached on.

S.D.Jayakumar, president of Maduravoyal Residents’ Welfare Association, said lack of government health facilities in the area forced residents, particularly those who could not afford treatment in private hospitals, to travel to the hospitals in the city.

Parks and schools are the other major requirements of the local body.

The residents also want the Metropolitan Transport Corporation to operate bus services to the residential areas located off Poonamallee High Road in Maduravoyal, including MMDA Colony, he said.

Conceding that there was a lack of basic amenities, Municipal Chairman K.Shanmugam said that the local body took up projects within the revenue of Rs.80 lakh collected as property tax.

At present, work on constructing stormwater drain worth Rs.2 crore is being carried out for which the local body expects funds from the State government.

While a Rs.23-crore water supply project is under way in a few wards, the underground drainage scheme to be implemented by Chennai Metrowater is awaiting approval from the Centre, he said.

Municipal officials said civic amenities such as roads and parks would be provided when the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority provided annual grant.