CHENNAI : Behind the towering Rippon Building and dilapidated Victoria Hall, lies a tangle of streets and roads that is Periyamet. Located close to Central Railway Station, Periamet was a leather hub of the city in the 80s and 90s. A few godowns and tanneries though still function from the street. Due to dwindling business, many closed down, only to be replaced by dozens of towering hotels per street. Following an email from a reader about the increasing encroachments on VV Koil Street affecting local businesses, CE visited the area to find out more.
Reputation at stake
Of the 90 hotels on VV Koil Street, six are multi-storeyed. According to the managers, most of them replaced leather companies due to its prime location. Business is brisk, they say. The other end of the street, though, has a different story to tell. Dozens of bathroom stall-sized makeshift homes have been a permanent fixture for many years, which stand at the threshold between the hotels and the street.
“Customers have said that the encroachments bother them. They ask why there is a slum — of course, that’s not the right word — right next to a hotel. So, they leave negative reviews online, and it affects business,” shares Midhun Kayyil, manager of Hydel Park Hotel. He also claims that the people living in the encroachments go through the hotel’s garbage at night.
This directly affects the hotels closer to the encroachments, and indirectly, the hotels deeper within the street. “The road is not cleaned regularly. Workers come to clean the road once in five or six days. With so many hotels here, which hosts many foreigners, regular cleaning has to take place,” said Sounder Rajan J, manager of Grand Cascade Rooms. He also expressed concern that especially due to the encroachments, regular cleaning was necessary, as the residents often sleep on the road.
Safety and sanitation
According to Poongudi R, a 63-year-old resident of the encroachments, the 40-odd families on the street have spent six generations in bathroom-sized houses. “My grandmother lived here, in these very same houses. Now, my granddaughter lives here too. Our families have worked with the tanneries in the area, but now that the businesses have shut down, we have no work,” she said.
Her daughter, Ladhiya R, explained that the houses are too small to hold an entire family, and therefore the adults sleep on the street or on an elevated pavement. “When we sleep, you can’t tell how your dress will move, so things might slip here and there. It’s very uncomfortable for us ladies. We’ve even had incidents where, while we are asleep, men come and lie down next to us,” she said. The children either sleep in the houses or on the porch of a leather tannery. The women take turns staying up till the wee hours in the morning to keep an eye on each other.
As he lays on a cycle cart, slowly petting a black cat, Elumalai G, Poongudi’s husband, explained that the nearest public toilet was being used by all the families in the encroachments. “It’s difficult for us men to use, so imagine how the women must feel. A Corporation official visited us six months back and we told him all our problems. But, nothing has happened yet,” he said.
As a coolie in a nearby leather godown, Elumalai washes sheets of leather, but decreasing business is putting a strain on the families on the road.When contacted, Corporation officials stated that they were unaware of the issue, but will look into it.“Many media people have come here and spoken to us about all this. We’ve spoken to newspapers and we’ve spoken to the cameras. Still, nothing has changed,” said Poongudi.