Industries thrive, civic amenities lag behind

Chennai: World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, who arrived in Chennai last month, was full of praise for the capital city and said Chennai was a happening place for industries and investments. Chennai also has a rich legacy of being a thriving city for automobile majors and IT industries. But a visit to the industrial estates in and around Chennai gives a pathetic picture, where the industry zones are deprived of their due infra boost for the past several years.

Greater Chennai is home to half-a-dozen industrial zones comprising two historical industrial estates started by first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru at Guindy in 1958. Chennai to its credit also has Ambattur Industrial Estate, spread over an area of 1,400 acres and is the biggest small-scale industrial estate in south Asia. But both the estates have clogged drains chocked with untreated sewage and industrial residue.

Lack of zero waste management and poor interior roads are set to make things worse for the ensuing monsoon. Lack of streetlight and encroachments are other serious issues that stall the progress of these industrial zones.

The situation of Ambattur and Guindy are relatively better compared to other industrial areas like Patravakkam, Madhavaram, Manali and Thiruvottiyur, now merged with Chennai corporation.

According to Chennai corporation sources, Manali, Madhavaram, Thiruvottiyur, Sholinganallur have fewer properties compared to other congested zones. Highly polluted Manali, an industrial area, has large refineries and industries and has the lowest number of buildings with 18,263 properties assessed for tax and is followed by Madhavaram, recording 37,433 assessees.

And the prime reasons for non-development of these zones are unchecked pollution and lack of civic infrastructure. For the poor state of industrial areas, corporation or local bodies alone can’t be blamed as various departments coming under the state industry department also administer these industrial areas.

Government agencies including Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation and Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd focus on investments but do not have adequate staff to clear the drains, collect the garbage or to repair faulty lights.

Tamil Nadu vision 2023 policy drafted by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has listed access to finance and infrastructure availability as a key to success for better economy. Though local or foreign investments have never been a problem for Chennai, infrastructure like quality roads, waste management and drains are problems for industrial zones in Chennai.

Tamil Nadu, led by Chennai, provides the largest number of employment in the country (15.32 per cent) and the state has witnessed phenomenal growth in the number of small scale industries from 4,74,699 units in 2003 to 8,43,617 units till last year. What is lacking is civic administration and clean ambience.