Royapuram, one of the important Assembly constituencies in the city that comprises several prominent landmarks established during the colonial era has been crying for attention for some years now.
Battered roads, poor sanitation, bottlenecks causing traffic congestion and shortage of crematoriums are some of the issues plaguing the local residents.
“Trucks coming from Chennai port ply on S.N Chetty Salai where the Kasimedu fishing harbour is located.
From the tollgate to zero gate, containers are parked on either side of the road inconveniencing the residents of the locality,” said Nanchil, P. Ravi, representative of All India Fishermen Association.
The interior roads of Royapuram are not suitable for containers to ply and yet trailers use the road. Road widening work to facilitate the free flow of traffic is moving at snail’s pace,” he said.
The constituency is thickly populated and yet it lags behind other city areas in terms of development. Another long-pending issue is the shortage of electronic crematoriums at Kasimedu, which also caters to neighbouring areas.
“There is only one electronic crematorium which won’t suffice. On a daily basis, nearly 25 bodies are cremated using logs causing air pollution. The corporation should take steps to set up gasifier crematoriums to meet the demand,” said a resident of Kasimedu.
“Like other parts of city, the mosquito menace is also acute in Royapuram with prevalence of malaria and diarrhoea. Adding to such woes is garbage clearance is done only twice a week in parts of Royapuram,” complained Mr Earnest paul, president, Royapuram Resi-dents Welfare Association.
“Despite repeated pleas there is no respite. The irony is north Chennai generates huge revenues in commercial and sales taxes but it is neglected for the reasons best known to authorities,” the civic activist lamented.
When DC tried contacting the Officer of Zone 5, he was unavailable for a comment.
