Part of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenement roof collapses, boy injured in Chennai

The thirty-eight-year-old building now houses around 488 families.“For a week now, the ceiling was cracked.
(Top) Victim Rubesh with his family at the hospital;  a part of the ceiling that collapsed at the slum board apartments in Chennai on Tuesday | ashwin prasath
(Top) Victim Rubesh with his family at the hospital; a part of the ceiling that collapsed at the slum board apartments in Chennai on Tuesday | ashwin prasath

CHENNAI: Rupesh Kumar and his father Boopathi were still asleep when a part of the ceiling in the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board apartments in Valleeswaran Thottam, Raja Annamalai Puram collapsed around 3 am on Tuesday. While Boopathi escaped with minor bruises, Rubesh now has eight stitches on his head.

The thirty-eight-year-old building now houses around 488 families.“For a week now, the ceiling was cracked. All houses here are in bad shape,” said Boopathi, a tailor.  Rubesh, a first-year B Com student, was treated in a private hospital, he said, adding that it set him back by `6,000.

There have been many instances in the past in which parts of ceilings have collapsed in the apartments, said another tenement resident, Jayachandran.“Around a year ago, a child was injured and we took to the streets and tried to push through the local MLA for authorities to build us a new structure,” he said.

Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board authorities said that a proposal to demolish the existing structure had been approved and a new structure with 580 units would be constructed.“Work is expected to begin in about three months,” said a senior official.“Since the new buildings are to be built, the maintenance activities undertaken for these existing buildings have stopped altogether,” Jayachandran added.

580 units structure to be constructed by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board authorities. A proposal to demolish the existing structure had been approved

In 2015

A similar incident was reported in NVN Nagar in Thirumangalam

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