Delimitation redraws city ward map

“We did not increase the number of divisions during the delimitation drive and the city will continue to have 200 divisions. However, boundaries of 119 divisions have been modified,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

The draft proposal was released in January and the final list on December 14.

The official added that the boundaries of the remaining 81 divisions would remain the same. The civic body has also changed the ward numbers of a few divisions to avoid confusion. Explaining the rationale behind changing numbers, the official said, “Earlier, the Perungudi Zone has wards such as 168, 169 and 183 to 191. Now, all the zones have divisions in a continuous numerical order.”

Besides modifying the boundaries of the divisions, the civic body has also changed the boundaries of Madhavaram and Manali zones by adding the division 29 (new number 22) to Manali from Madhavaram. The officials said this was done following the representation from the residents of 29th division, who pointed out that the division is geographically closer to Manali than Madhavaram.

“As the core city is more densely populated compared to the added areas, the delimitation drive was carried out based on the population rather than considering the area,” the official said.

Zones such as Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Adyar (all in the core city) would have a population of 43,000 per division. Divisions in Ambattur and Valasaravakkam zones would have a population of 30,000 and Tiruvottiyur, Perungudi, Alandur and Sholinganallur would have 20,000 people per division. Divisions in Manali and Madhavaram zones would have a population of 15,000.

The largest division is in Sholinganallur Zone, spread across 10.19 sqkm whereas smallest division is only 0.40 sq km (Royapuram Zone). Meanwhile, DMK MLA and former Chennai Mayor M Subramanian said that the delimitation drive was carried out only to defer local body elections. “There is no use for the public, as the delimitation was conducted only a few years ago,” he said.