Old Washermanpet cries out for total makeover

ward.jpg.crop_display.jpg

The historic Old Washermanpet, which was part of the erstwhile Madrasapattinam is suffering from narrow roads, cramped footpaths and clogged drains. While parts of south Chennai have become posh, this old ward of north Chennai is now a breeding ground for mosquitoes with high incidence of water borne diseases, say local residents.

Residents are agitated over the delay in the completion of much anticipated Stanley underground bridge work, which is progressing at a snail’s pace. Moreover, the entire area is devoid of bus connectivity.

“The construction of bridge that was started four years ago is still dragging on. Coupled with inadequate bus services, motorists are forced to use battered roads. Civic authorities are so careless when it comes to north Chennai. Potholes are visible across all the arterial roads,” laments trader A.V.S. Marimuthu.

While poor roads and lack of bus services haunt locals, sanitation and public hygiene is even worse.

“The entire Old Washermenpet needs a fresh thinking. More public toilets are the need of hour. Women have great inconvenience as even the existing toilets are poorly maintained. It’s high time the corporation builds more toilets and maintains them properly,” said A. Mala.

The public also complained of acute shortage of space for pedestrians. Unchecked encroachments make matters worse. Even the state run electricity board encroaches on a number of roads with its transformers while electrical cables also eat up footpath space.

“Pavements exist only in name. Civic authorities should at least remove the commercial encroachments to benefit pedestrians,” said Mr S. Sugan Raj.

When contacted, ward councilor Era Palani said, “Public toilets are being cleaned daily, Stanley under bridge will be ready by the end of September.”

Replying to a question on inadequate bus services to the area, the councillor said. “The bus service in G.A. Road is temporarily cut due to ongoing construction works at Mint junction, the service will resume once the constructions works get over.” He added that encroachments were periodically being removed.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/180339" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-42f489a2d9fcd385738f395619591860" value="form-42f489a2d9fcd385738f395619591860" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85247320" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.