C Shivakumar/ ENS
Chennai:
A fire that engulfed a godown on Narayana Mudali street killing one
person and the difficulty posed by the fire tenders to reach the spot
in time should be a warning to the Chennai Metropolitan Development
Authority and Chennai Corporation to redevelop the age old settlement,
according to M G Deivasahayam, a monitoring committee member.
Deivasahayam told Express that it is high time the government looked
at redeveloping the residential areas like Sowcarpet, Parrys, T Nagar,
Kodambakkam and other old settlements so that major tragedies could be
avoided.
The narrow lanes of Sowcarpet, which has several residential
multi-storied buildings has been converted into a commercial zone with
shops and godowns operating from these areas.
This has delayed the arrival of fire-tenders at the accident spot.
Eyewitnesses said the fire-engines faced the difficulty in entering
the narrow street which were lined with vehicles, including tricycles
and autorickshaws.
“The case is more or less similar to T Nagar,” he says. He says the
area requires re-development like it is being done in T Nagar.
Interestingly, the redevelopment of T Nagar is happening only in
commercial areas. “We have to look at residential areas here which
have been converted into commercial areas,” he said.
Interestingly, the buildings in the area violate the development
control rules, including floor space index besides front setbacks,
side setbacks and rear setbacks. Many of the buildings don’t have fire
fighting machinery like in the case of T Nagar buildings.
“It is like the area is waiting for a tragedy to happen,’ a planner said.
Interestingly, this comes in the wake of Chennai Metropolitan
Development facing a Hamletian dilemma to act against the illegal
buildings after the High court has quashed two Government Orders that
allowed regularization of illegal buildings built till July 1, 2007.
Deivasahayam, who opposed the two government orders, says there is the
need to demolish the illegal buildings rather than lock and seal them
as suggested by Justice Mohan committee recommendations.
Citing the example of demolition of Mumbai Campa Cola Society case,
Deivasahayam said Chennai authorities have to take a leaf from the
incident and act against the illegal buildings.
He said there is no point on dragging the issue so that the violators
could benefit. “This would result in chaos and more corruption,” he
warned.
Interestingly, a rough estimate suggests that there were about three
lakh buildings in the state which were unauthorisedly developed. Even
High Court has hit out on this issue stating that if that was the
position in the year 2000, now we are in the year 2014 and therefore,
the number of unauthorized constructions would have got increased
manifold.
Chennai:
A fire that engulfed a godown on Narayana Mudali street killing one
person and the difficulty posed by the fire tenders to reach the spot
in time should be a warning to the Chennai Metropolitan Development
Authority and Chennai Corporation to redevelop the age old settlement,
according to M G Deivasahayam, a monitoring committee member.
Deivasahayam told Express that it is high time the government looked
at redeveloping the residential areas like Sowcarpet, Parrys, T Nagar,
Kodambakkam and other old settlements so that major tragedies could be
avoided.
The narrow lanes of Sowcarpet, which has several residential
multi-storied buildings has been converted into a commercial zone with
shops and godowns operating from these areas.
This has delayed the arrival of fire-tenders at the accident spot.
Eyewitnesses said the fire-engines faced the difficulty in entering
the narrow street which were lined with vehicles, including tricycles
and autorickshaws.
“The case is more or less similar to T Nagar,” he says. He says the
area requires re-development like it is being done in T Nagar.
Interestingly, the redevelopment of T Nagar is happening only in
commercial areas. “We have to look at residential areas here which
have been converted into commercial areas,” he said.
Interestingly, the buildings in the area violate the development
control rules, including floor space index besides front setbacks,
side setbacks and rear setbacks. Many of the buildings don’t have fire
fighting machinery like in the case of T Nagar buildings.
“It is like the area is waiting for a tragedy to happen,’ a planner said.
Interestingly, this comes in the wake of Chennai Metropolitan
Development facing a Hamletian dilemma to act against the illegal
buildings after the High court has quashed two Government Orders that
allowed regularization of illegal buildings built till July 1, 2007.
Deivasahayam, who opposed the two government orders, says there is the
need to demolish the illegal buildings rather than lock and seal them
as suggested by Justice Mohan committee recommendations.
Citing the example of demolition of Mumbai Campa Cola Society case,
Deivasahayam said Chennai authorities have to take a leaf from the
incident and act against the illegal buildings.
He said there is no point on dragging the issue so that the violators
could benefit. “This would result in chaos and more corruption,” he
warned.
Interestingly, a rough estimate suggests that there were about three
lakh buildings in the state which were unauthorisedly developed. Even
High Court has hit out on this issue stating that if that was the
position in the year 2000, now we are in the year 2014 and therefore,
the number of unauthorized constructions would have got increased
manifold.
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