Encroaching road, temple construction on in Mylapore

CHENNAI: A significant portion of Arundel Street in Mylapore is taken up by the encroaching temple’s development. At the intersection of Arundel Street, Paripoorna Vinayagar Koil, and Nachiappan Street is a temple that is currently under construction. The temple was built either without authorisation from the Greater Chennai Corporation or in violation of the permission given by it.

The ongoing construction is aimed to make it a bigger temple which was a small one near the tree on an encroached land. “In the month of December a complaint was registered about the issue in the Namma Chennai app. The Corporation did not take any action on the same. But, later when the complaint was registered again stating that the issue will be taken to the court, two weeks later on January 22 a notice was issued by the GCC stating that planning permission was not taken” said R Ramesh, a civic activist.

People associated with the temple claimed that more than Rs 20 lakh was invested in the construction and asked to withdraw the complaint.

After complaining, the complainant’s number was revealed and he received calls, he added. The question of how the number was shared raises questions of the privacy of the complainant.

Due to the metro works there is an increase in the number of commuters using this road due to traffic diversions and this encroachment causes trouble to the people. The area is congested due to the narrow streets which cause traffic snarls in the area and also affecting the services like ambulance, metro water lorries etc.

DT next efforts to reach the officials went in futile as they failed to respond.