CHENNAI: From water woes to accessible hospital to unemployment, the the tens of thousands of families at the city’s sprawling resettlement sites share many a grievance. As the city is set to vote on Thursday, the residents told the TNIE the state has resettled them to the margins of the city first, and the systems that should have supported them arrived years later and in fragments.
Perumbakkam
One of the largest resettlement sites in the city with a population of around 1 lakh, the newly constructed government hospital is yet to be opened fully for the public in Perumbakkam. The primary healthcare centre continues to be short-staffed, with residents reporting doctors are available for consultation only from 9 am to 12 pm.
A safety audit by a section of residents found that stretches at the tail-end near blocks 150 and the stretch from 80-86 are poorly lit. Until two years ago, the tenements get flooded during the monsoon.
Any infrastructure upgrades have largely been reactive. For instance in 2016, safety grilles were introduced in the open-to-sky spaces after a 15-year-old child fell to her death. A CAG report in 2014 had flagged the tenements were in violation of the National Building Code of India (NBC) under which, the density of a housing project cannot exceed 150 units per hectare. The Perumbakkam site had nearly 24,000 units on 81 hectares, around double the recommended units.
The residents said many of the troubles are due to the design of the buildings as, during the construction phase, it did not take into account the needs of the residents like accommodating livestock or park their cars.
“People here think twice about buying cars. You’d have to park where you find space and worry if it’s going to be safe. Would a residential project of this scale be imagined elsewhere without a car park?” asked a resident.
Kannagi Nagar
At the first glance, Kannagi Nagar comes across as a neighbourhood where everything seems to be in order - wide, clean roads, a functioning Urban Community Health Centre, well-laid-out parks, and the markings of a ‘planned’ settlement. But the smaller lanes, branching off the main road, are an uneven reality.
The lack of potable water is a major issue here. Each block stores water in about a dozen blue drums placed outside the ground-floor entrance, before pumping it into overhead tanks using separate motors. The residents said it cost around `20,000 per house, adding though in 2024, the DMK announced a `70 crore project to overhaul the pipelines and supply approximately 6MLD of water, its implementation has not started yet.
In some interior lanes sewage water was overflowing. Deep-rooted unemployment, especially among youngsters, has come to haunt the next generation of the residents here. Meanwhile, at UCHC, doctors said they have 250-400 walk-ins everyday, mostly from expectant mothers. They are attended to by one, or sometimes two doctors, and seven nurses. “You need at least five doctors to cater to these many patients,” said a staff member.
Ezhil Nagar
The Ezhil Nagar, close to Kannagi Nagar and home to around 7,000 resettled families, has been grappling with its out-of-school children. The residents said the issue lay unaddressed until activists intervened. Those trying to re-enrol sometimes give up mid way, either unable to cope up or struggling to get their admission documentation in order.
The children here need bridge schools to give them a fair chance at continuing their education, the residents said, adding without avenues for sports and leisure, the children, including those out of school, fall into drugs and alcohol use. The Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board conducted an ‘Inter slum olympics’ in 2019 in Perumbakkam but the annual activity was given up in subsequent years.
“Sports needs to be promoted among the children and young adults here. We see how children like Kannagi Nagar’s Karthika shine. The onus should not be on residents to create these opportunities for children,” said Durga R, a resident.
The students should also be given counselling support, they added.
KP Park
Nothing has changed for residents of Kesava Pillai (KP) Park in Pulianthope, who continue to live in fear amid crumbling walls and staircases. A 2021 assessment by the Centre for Urbanisation, Building and Environment (CUBE) had already flagged “poor quality” construction and “unacceptable workmanship”, particularly in plastering, along with several other defects in the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) tenements.
The situation remains dire. Staircases are severely damaged, leading to frequent slips, while lift facilities across the eight blocks, housing 1920 units, are unreliable as residents say they have never seen all lifts functioning at once; often only one works per building, and sometimes none, forcing people in 9-11 storey buildings to depend on unsafe stairs.
Water scarcity is another major issue. Residents receive metro water for only about 10 minutes daily, without fixed timings. Many wash clothes only once in five days, and don’t take baths daily.
Despite a fatal elevator accident in 2024, safety systems like Automatic Rescue Devices remain uninstalled, said residents.