Avadi’s infrastructure takes backseat

Avadi, once a suburb that people avoided, is now a happening place where budget homes are mushrooming.

Despite rusty, saline groundwater, the locality has emerged as a calm residential neighbourhood.

Avadi's actual development started in 1965 when the Union government set up its heavy vehicle factory.

Avadi is an acronym for Arm­oured Vehicles and Am­m­unition Depot of India where the ministry of defence manufactures hea­­vy vehicles, including the main battle tank, Arjun, for the Indian Army.

With the defence, railways and Avadi mun­i­cipality not sharing mutual understanding, infrastructure has taken a backseat in the locality.

In 1970, Avadi was constituted as a municipality comprising the Parut­hipattu, Pal­eripa­ttu, Vill­i­­­­a­n­jia­mpakkam, Sekk­adu, Mut­h­apudupet, Tha­ndu­rai, Mitt­ana­millee, Kov­­­­ilp­ada­gai and Thir­umu­llaivoyal and now the population is estimated to be around 3.5 lakhs.

The municipality, since 2008, enjoys special grade status, but mostly elects a chairman from the opposition party, resulting in political rivalry.

Curr­en­tly, the chairman of Av­adi municipality is S.M. Nasar, elected from the DMK, while local legislator S. Abdul Rahim, bel­onging to the ruling AIADMK, is also a minister for minorities in the state government.

The political feud has not only affected the administration of Avadi municipality, the locality is yet to witness any major inf­ra­structure development.

In 2008 the then minister of state for railways R. Velu mooted a proposal for converting suburban Avadi railway station into a major terminal, but the project failed to take off.

However, the little respite that Avadi has had from the railways is that several long-distance trains, including the Tirupati-Chennai Central Express and fast suburban electric trains do stop at Avadi.

Despite being blessed with good rail connectivity, the approach roads leading to Avadi, An­na­nur and Thirumu­lla­ivoyil railway stations remain an eyesore as the road repair works have be­en put on hold for the past three years to ensure that the ongoing drainage work is completed.

The municipality, along with the Tamil Nadu water development board, had also envisaged drinking water schemes under which are increased to 90 LPCD per day.

However, the residents are now thrilled with the state government's recent introduction of small buses connecting Thirumul­laiv­oy­il-A­nnanur and Avadi.