Citizen Connect: From streetlights to water and good roads, Thalambur residents seek basic amenities

As the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) transformed into an important location for companies including IT and other sunrise sectors, Thalambur in the neighbourhood became a residential locality for those working here. However, the residents here allege that they do not yet have even the basic amenities such as drinking water, streetlights or even good roads.

The population of the village has increased in the recent years, as many people who are working in OMR are staying in Thalambur, which lies just two km away from Navalur. But despite being one of the fast developing villages along OMR, consisting of six wards and nearly 16,000 residents, locals claimed that they were at the receiving end of official apathy.

The locals claimed that their neighbourhood lacked even basic facilities like drainage, streetlights and drinking water. The drinking water pipes are found broken in many places, due to which drainage often gets mixed with it, alleged the residents, rueing how they do not even get proper drinking water because of this. Due to this, many in the neighbourhood, especially children, have been falling sick.

Also, waste from the nearby factories frequently flow into the storm water drains. It often overflows on to the street when the drains get blocked. The situation is worst in Pillaiyar Koil Street in Ward 3, as factory waste remain stagnated on the street.

According to residents, the waste from factories that are left on the streets get inside the lake in the nearby Sivan temple, making it unusable. “We have taken the issue to the District Collector, Block Development Officer (BDO), and village panchayat officials many times. But none of them have taken any action to redress our grievances. It would be helpful if the officials took steps to at least construct a proper under ground drainage network,” said H Karthikeyan, a social activist from the village. 

When contacted, the Thalambur village panchayat secretary S Madanraj said, “We have planned to divert the storm water drains to a canal in Semmenchery. The works are in initial stage and it would be completed in few months. We have also planned to construct two overhead tanks at an estimated cost of Rs 20 lakh. After that the water problem will be resolved.”