CHENNAI: Poor man's paradise, Villivakkam pays a heavy price owing to unstructured development, dense population and poor roads.
Even though people have to live with traffic bottlenecks and a lack of a piped drinking water supply, they still vote for this locality as its location near prime Anna Nagar and road and rail connectivity make it easy to go to work and return. But they are forced to pay the price as development work moves at a snail's pace. The fact that the area lacks a good park to visit is a proof.
The upcoming Metro Rail network, with a hub beneath the Villivakkam Bus Terminus, is expected to increase footfall, market value, and civic mess, too.
Residents' key concerns include perennial water scarcity, water contamination, and the menace of stray cattle and dogs. Additionally, the public is calling for more public toilets, a government hospital, and the resumption of work on the halted amusement park in Villivakkam Lake.
In the last five years, stormwater drainage, roadworks, solid waste management, and street lighting have improved in most areas of the constituency.
The constituency has a significant voter base of working-class individuals, government employees, middle- and lower-middle-class groups, and small industrial business owners. The ongoing construction of the Metro Rail station is expected to increase the population density.
Selva Kumar, a resident of Ponnan Kinaru Street, alleged the area lacks piped drinking water despite having a connection and paying water tax for over a decade. Currently, due to sewage contamination, residents who do have a water supply are also forced to close their Metro Water pipes, as one resident shared.
Families highly rely on expensive private tankers and Metro Water lorries. This shortage becomes particularly critical during the peak of the summer. "The large vehicles and lack of parking space for individual houses, narrow interior lanes, make it a tough task for the house owners while renovating their houses. If large vehicles are parked, entire streets will be choked," said Babloo of Bajanai Koil Street.
The proposal to widen MTH Road has been on for a long time, says K Sathiya, an auto driver at Rajamangalam Main Road. The Ambedkar Road, which connects Villivakkam with CM's constituency, Kolatur, is the only way to avoid MTH road congestion, he says. But much of Dr Ambedkar Road is occupied by ICF trailer trucks.
Explaining the several lapses in the constituency, residents demanded more toilets, adequate speed breakers, better roads, a recreational space and a government hospital. "The station road near Villivakkam Station is in poor condition. The North Mada Street, Bazaar Street, and several other streets will be waterlogged every monsoon," says RP Narayanan, a resident of SIDCO Nagar.
The residents, many of whom built homes on poromboke lands, are struggling to get pattas. "We have been asking for pattas for nearly 600 houses in the 11 streets for more than 13 years, and urge the start of the construction of the demolished toilet," explained Illiyas, a resident of KK Nagar in Ayanavaram.