Chennai: The Guindy industrial estate, touted at one time as Asia’s first production cluster, is in doldrums now. Disintegrating infrastructure, broken roads, poor illumination and toxic dump yards are just a few of the many problems dogging the estate, which has over 200 units – big and small.
“This huge dump yard of dangerous electronic waste has nothing to do with our wastage, which we are careful enough to dispose in an eco-friendly manner. Others dump their e-waste surreptitiously during night,” said a managing director of a manufacturing company at the estate.
Burning of waste is a perennial sight. Thick smoke engulfs the locality, posing the health hazards to the workers here. “It does not affect the high profiled officers as they are confined to AC rooms. The problem is so bad that most of us suffer with serious respiratory problems,” said C. Palanisamy, a watchman, pointing towards the Sidco’s vacant land, which turned a dump yard.
The vacant plot is filled with all sorts of waste: green waste, piles of food waste and electronic dumps. Attributing the anti-social elements to the absence of security personnel, a mechanic here said, “There is no activity here, after 7pm. As it is difficult to find an abandoned land within the city, owing to real estate price, business establishments nearby take advantage of the situation to dump their waste.”
“Miscreants also set fire to these dumps for collecting lead and copper from the ashes, not bothering about the toxic pollution done in the process,” added the mechanic.
All the lanes leading to Jawaharlal Nehru road (including the one adjacent to VGN property) resemble a forest during night, with meager illumination. The roads are the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, complained industrialists.
“The locality is a breeding centre for mosquitoes that are distributed to the city from here,” said an industrialist in a sarcastic tone adding that they are loyal taxpayers to the corporation. He also wondered if the dispute between the civic body and Sidco authorities is the reason behind the unanimous ignorance towards the locality.
Chief managing director of Sidco Mangat Ram Sharma thanked Deccan Chronicle for bringing the issues to his notice and assured this correspondent to solve it at the earliest. “I will direct the executive engineer to inspect the locality. We would also evict the unauthorised structures here,” he told.
Small traders abandon estate
Many major civic grievances including poor water supply and the question of safety has forced several units to remain closed. With government authorities turning a blind eye, the manufacturing units are now shifting out to well-maintained private industrial parks.
“Many manufacturing units have been taken over by IT sector. There is a high need to develop the estate into an eco-friendly place with abundant greenery,” said an industrialist. “Despite paying water tax to the corporation, manufacturing units rely on private tankers to meet the need,” he added.
