CHENNAI: Installed to beautify Chennai’s streetscape, many of the Greater Chennai Corporation’s view cutters, metal enclosures designed to cover roadside electricity transformers, fuse boxes and switch gears, are turning into dumping ground. Cut off from the public eye, the residents said, the waste would go uncleared for months.
During a field visit, TNIE saw over 20 of these structures in Choolaimedu, Triplicane, Anna Nagar and Nungambakkam are poorly maintained with garbage, plastic waste, crates and empty alcohol bottles dumped in these enclosures. In many of these locations, there was also a strong stench of urine, inconveniencing pedestrians and residents nearby.
Some of the view cutters are incomplete, with only frames erected and no sheet in place, making them easy target for waste disposal. On Tank Bund Road, one of the three view cutters remain unfinished and has become a convenient spot for residents of a nearby apartment complex to dispose household waste. In another location on the same road, the place is being used to park motorbikes since one side is left open.
On Kodambakkam High Road, a view cutter has only its frame installed, with transformer boxes beneath covered in posters. In Sowrashtra Nagar and near Nungambakkam Railway Station in Choolaimedu, similarly incomplete structures are found filled with waste, including food leftovers and thermocol. In Mahalingapuram, three view cutters are found incomplete and are being used for fixing posters and dumping waste. On Sterling Avenue, the structure is found open on one side and used as a garbage dump, where dozens of plastic crates and alcohol bottles dumped. On Lady Madhavan road, the enclosure has construction debris.
In many of these locations, the view cutters are located near dustbins. If the bins are full or unavailable, the residents are dumping the waste in the enclosures, said residents.
Sanitary worker Pushpalatha V M (38), said the incomplete structures are making the menace worse. “as the structure is incomplete, it is easier for the people to throw waste inside,” she said.
Speaking to TNIE, a corporation official assured to inspect the view cutters and take appropriate action.
T David Shyam, A John Milton.