DMK leader and sitting Member of Parliament T.R. Baalu.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Sriperumbudur constituency, the biggest constituency in the State, straddles across portions of Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Chennai and Tiruvallur districts. This spread over industrial towns, popular residential localities, temple town and business hub, has repositioned the need for clearing pending infrastructure needs in the run up to the April 19 election.
The residents of the six Assembly constituencies list a variety of issues: including absence of civic infra works in the industrial belt to ease traffic congestion, improvement of health sector, slow progress of the extension project of the Mass Rapid Transit system (MRTS) from Velachery to St. Thomas Mount and the protection of water bodies.
Social activist R. Loganathan, a long time resident of Sriperumbudur, said while several localities comprising Alandur, Pallavaram, Tambaram, Maduravoyal, and Ambattur, have seen some kind of civic developments, the Sriperumbudur area has remained completely neglected. Mr. Loganathan said the industrial belt having hundreds of big automobile companies where thousands of employees are working does not have a well-equipped government hospital. As a result many persons involved in road and factory accidents are provided only first aid treatment at the Sriperumbudur government hospital and referred to the hospitals in Chennai city which are more than 30 kilometres away for admission and specialised treatment.
Similarly the industrialists of the Irungattukottai belt want the civic infra work relating to the power supply need to be improved by setting up 230-kilo volt (KV) substation for uninterrupted power supply, as the industries normally face electricity issues during the peak summer months of April and May.
The residents of Alandur constituency covering Nanganallur, Palavanthangal and Adambakka, rue about the delay in the MRTS extension project for more than a decade. Social activist V. Rama Rao explains that the metro train project which was started after the MRTS project has been completed but the elevated MRTS project stretching for just 5-kilometre was dragging on for several years.
Coming to the several localities of Manapakkam, Mugalivakkam, Kundrathur and Porur, which are fast developing into thickly populated residential areas with several multi-storey apartments, the residents want the Manapakkam Main Road to be widened at the earliest.
T. Murugaperumal, a resident of Manapakkam, said the execution of the metro rail work on Mount Poonamallee Main Road has resulted in heavy traffic chaos whereby residents are unable to reach Kundrathur and Sriperumbudur via Porur. The widening of the Manapakkam Main Road, which connects Manapakkam with Kundrathur, would help in the motorists not having to proceed to the Mount Poonamallee Road to reach Kundrathur and Sriperumbudur. It is also requested for the need to remove encroachments which have happened in Manapakkam, Gerugambakkam and Kundrathur, he added.
Though the political arena in the constituency seems to be a David versus Goliath fight between DMK and the AIADMK. By all accounts, the DMK leader and sitting Member of Parliament T.R. Baalu is currently looking invincible with a well-oiled electoral machinery. The National Democratic Alliance-led Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) candidate V.N. Venugopal is hoping to put up a tough fight.
Mr. Baalu cites the neglect by the Central government for allocation of funds for the expansion of the metro corridor from Chennai Airport to Kilambakkam and several civic infrastructure works. He adds that he has been taking up the issue regarding the construction of the road overbridge (ROB) for the residents of Irumbuliyur located on the east side of the railway tracks, which has been left hanging for several years, with the officials of the Southern Railway. The ROB has been delayed due to some land accquisition issues and once the Lok Sabha election was over the ROB project would be launched. He also assured residents that the extension of the metro rail corridors to Kilambakkam and Thirumazhisai would be taken up.
Mr. Venugopal has been assuring the voters during his election campaign of starting Navodaya schools and construction of a Kendriya Vidyalaya school having a capacity for 2,000 students for the low income group. He also makes his constituents the promise of linking the metro rail to the industrial belt of Sriperumbudur from Poonamallee.
AIADMK’s candidate Premkumar said he would be taking steps to construct flyovers on the Chennai Bengaluru Highway at the junction of Kancheepuram-Chennai Road and Vallakottai Koot Road.