Over the past week the interns at Transparent Chennai visited Ward 185 Pallavakkam, and on one of these visits we had a very interesting meeting with the Municipal Councillor. This meeting provided invaluable insights about the problems the councillor faces in his daily work. The Pallavakkam ward as he explained to us was only very recently brought under the ambit of the Chennai City Corporation, having been a panchayat till then.

In his opinion, the biggest challenge he faced was in securing Metro Water connections for the residents of his ward. The ward which has the East Coast Road (ECR) running through it faces a problem in that the water along the beach area was potable, while the water lying between the ECR and OMR on the west was primarily saline.  At the same time, other problems pertained to the street lighting, and the local school. Due to delays in processing requests, the councillor had himself spent his own money in solving some problems such as repairing broken street lights and drilling public bore wells.

What struck us most about the councillor was that he made himself accessible to the residents of his ward – he was available at the ward office for a larger part of the day, and claimed to try and solve all the complaints he personally received. He also carries three phones which he answers at all times of the day and responds to the numerous complaints that he receives. At the same time, we wondered, what about all the complaints he never heard? More importantly, the meeting served to highlight to us the immense frustration felt by the councillor at the large number of agencies involved in any decision making process, and the confusion these interconnections have caused.

Written by: Suraj Nair and Akshaya Madhavan, Summer 2012 Interns and students at IIT Madras

On Saturday, a group of students from IIT Madras and Stella Maris college, summer interns with Transparent Chennai, set out for a heritage mapping session. By visualising data and information that is otherwise found in voluminous reports, Transparent Chennai advocates for better planning and conservation of the city’s heritage and we were excited to be a part of this. We set out early on Saturday with lists of heritage buildings, their sketchy descriptions, GPS devices and cameras. Our aim was to find some of the lesser known sites hidden in the nooks and corners of the city.

Pachiappa’s College building standing its ground amongst shops and hoardings

We had decided to explore George Town and were looking forward to unearthing some untold stories from its maze of streets and by-lanes. Wandering around George Town was in itself an incredible experience, even for the true blue Chennai-ites! The smells, the sounds and the sights were quite amazing and a whole world away from the Chennai we all knew and were used to. It was magical to walk through the quaintly named streets, which had survived repeated waves to reclaim their Indian-ness, lined with buildings built in a medley of architectural styles. No street or alley is quite without its own story – George Town is that richly steeped in history. In fact, if one were to ignore the traffic and the other signs of modernity, George Town would probably look exactly as it did in a hundred years ago! Unfortunately, we could not help but notice the way in which several of these historic buildings had been defaced, mainly by commercial use. We can only imagine what the imposing façade of Pachiayappa’s College School might have looked like a hundred years ago, or how the statue of Cornwallis might have proudly stood in its now decrepit cupola.

What had initially been planned as an early morning excursion ultimately took till late afternoon, as we wandered deeper and deeper into George Town, enamoured and enchanted. Needless to say, we lost our way several times in the meandering by-lanes of history. Many buildings were referred to by names different from the ones in our list, pronounced differently by local residents and barely resembled the descriptions we had! We ended up walking past  a building we had been looking for innumerable times, before we were able to recognise it! Mishaps apart, our mapping exercise was quite fruitful and we identified and photographed close to forty heritage buildings in the area!

The King’s Barracks – now serving as a store house for the army

High on enthusiasm, we decided to visit Fort St. George that evening. It was an entertaining visit, albeit disheartening. The staff in the innumerable offices housed there had no idea about any of the buildings we were looking for and pointed us in the direction of buildings that “lots of people photograph”! For instance, having split up into four pairs in order to cover the area faster, each pair ended up identifying the erstwhile “Chaplains’ house”! We were relieved to find a museum expecting to meet somebody who could regale us with stories about the Fort, but were sorely disappointed by the lack of knowledge and interest by the staff. Despite the museum having several interesting photographs and documents displayed we were unable to get good quality photographs since the inside of the museum was poorly lit and we were not allowed to use a camera flash. As appalling as this lack of documentation and interest within the Fort was, it was even worse to realise that the King’s Barrack’s – a stately and magnificent building – had been converted into a storehouse by the army! Many other buildings were in serious disrepair and looked like they had seen the worst in the 300 – 400 years of their existence. The army’s presence precludes the public from walking the area for fear of being “security threats”, which surprisingly would dissipate if we furnished the authorities with letters of introduction from our institutes!

Having realised that mapping the buildings within Fort St. George was proving to be quite futile, we decided that we would return another time, better prepared. On the whole, it was a thoroughly satisfying day, having seen a rarely known side of Chennai. Over the next couple of weekends we will walk down other streets of Chennai, looking for lesser known buildings that were witness to many events and hosted important personalities, and possibly hearing stories of love, tragedy, deaths, births, marriages, political alliances. After all, what is a city without its people and how can we do our bit to preserve this city’s rich cultural and built heritage.

- Written by Suraj Nair, Summer 2012 intern with Transparent Chennai and student at IIT Madras

Four days of mind boggling discussions on service delivery, and mapping of outcomes and outputs on a white board led us to believe that mapping jurisdictions and administrative boundaries would be a simple exercise! A morning walk around Ward 180 mapping surface garbage, dumpsters and a talk with Ramky staff collecting garbage proved to be a reality check. It was obvious that collecting official data and standards set by protocol was just the first step, and most likely relatively simpler, in understanding the greater picture of jurisdictions and accountability. This meant that intense brainstorming sessions and coffee chats in air conditioned rooms had to be supplemented with data collection trips to different government and Ramky offices. Nevertheless Akshaya and I set out to collect data after Nivetha and Suraj had managed to locate the respective offices and obtain appointments for us.

Ramky, a private agency that manages garbage collection and disposal in Chennai, was our first stop. We spoke with the person who handled complaints and were made to understand that Ramky had a structured way of working. There is a three-tier hierarchy starting with the supervisor reporting to the unit officer, who in turn reports to the zone head. Workers work in three shifts, the first starting at 6am! There is a step-wise procedure: garbage is swept from the streets, collected using tricycles and finally compactors. Ramky uses compactors of different sizes and employs different number of people depending upon the size of the ward. After the garbage is collected it is taken to the transfer station to check the weight, since Ramky is paid on the basis of garbage collected. From there the garbage is taken to dumping areas at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur. Different systems like the Management Information System (MIS) and Vehicle Tracking Supervisor System (VTS) are in place for monitoring and planning. While the MIS is used to collect and process information regarding garbage sites and routes, the VTS is used to take pictures of the sites and areas and sending it to office. There is a toll-free number that citizens can call to report complaints and their grievances are located and the concerned authority informed.

It all seemed straight-forward till the person who was giving us information had to enquire things from another department – the other employees grew circumspect and defensive. They refused to give information regarding their relations with the government departments and relations with councillors. Unable to access maps and quantitative data of garbage and dumpsters we left with the image of a photograph on the wall behind the receptionist – the Chairman of the Ramky Group of companies, standing in a huge dump yard with his arms wide open welcoming garbage.

Our second stop was at the offices of the Assistant Commissioner of Police to obtain data on road accidents, pedestrian crossings and road safety in general. After successfully making it past the innumerable gatekeepers who controlled access up the hierarchy, we met the police officer in charge. He initially agreed to help us with the information and requested that we provide him with a list of the data that we needed. After about half an hour of writing and waiting, he inserted a caveat for his promised support – a letter from our mentor addressed to his supervisors authorising him to share the data.

The most valuable lesson we learnt was that data collection from agencies involved in providing civic services in Chennai involves shuttling from agency to agency, desk to desk being told to adhere to innumerable formalities each different for the different agencies and desks! We experienced how these different agencies were at best indifferent to the problem at hand! We now know that patience is integral to our search for data. We have more trips lined up so stay tuned for more lessons in data collection! In the meantime, it’s back to the white board for us!

As Transparent Chennai gears up to do its next Ward Accountability Experiment (WAE) in Ward 57, a few of us from the team decided to visit a slum in that ward, Kalyanapuram – after all, one of WAE’s objective is to understand and generate data on spatial inequity within a ward. We wanted to understand the issues that slum dwellers face due to lack of infrastructure and the lack of access to existing infrastructure. It was important to understand the history of the slum first, for which we met with a few members of the slum community who were part of ‘Ambedkar Kazhagams*’ in the area.

The Kalyanapuram non-notified slum, comprising 1000 families, is but a chip of a bigger slum settlement in this area. One part of the Kalyanapuram slum, consisting only 250 families, moved into notified Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements erected in situ in 1974. The Kalyanapuram non-notified slum that continues to exist seems to be resting on what is a combination of railway, government and PWD land.

Since the Corporation has started work on eviction in this area, our conversation centred on possible rehabilitation to Kannagi Nagar. The impression we got from the people we interacted with, was one of considerable anger directed at the government, and a strong resistance to eviction. A notice was given to the community 15 years ago proposing a resettlement plan with the promise of better livelihood, but the move was resisted. According to Kannadasan, a local leader, slum dwellers (and Dalits) are always asked to sacrifice their already existing limited comforts, for the “development” and “beautification” of the city. As far as Kalyanapuram is concerned, the real estate value of surrounding areas is very high, and so if the slums are cleared out, the government can make high profits through real estate, he added.

After the meeting, we set out to map the area. The living conditions in the Kalyanapuram slum leave a lot to be desired. Households lack running water and depend on community hand pumps for water. The outermost part of Kalyanapuram is a garbage dump that outlines the Cooum, and serves as defecation grounds for those living in the slum. Women were seen washing vessels and clothes in the open space in front of a public toilet facility. Electricity is available by means of illegal power lines, and those who live in rented houses pay a fixed amount to access this electricity.

Woodwharf, a slum that adjoins Kalyanapuram, is relatively newer, with bigger houses and newer housing material. (Only a part of Woodwharf lies in Ward 57.) Along the entire stretch of the Woodwharf slum, one could see several small-scale manufacturing units of bamboo goods and stainless steel vessels, and mechanic shops.

In spite of the considerable time we spent on the site, we could only understand the basic civic issues of the slum dwellers pertaining to electricity and water access. We hope that this WAE would be a good first step towards improving conditions in this settlement with strong data backing the community’s demands for better infrastructure availability and access.

* Ambedkar Kazhagam was started by the community in the area to voice out the needs of the community and to organise the community to get better access to education and other basic infrastructure. The main objective of the party was to provide education to the children residing in the entire slum in and around Kalyanapuram. This party has also been actively engaged in the fight against eviction to Kannagi Nagar.

- Srinidhi and Priti from the ward accountability team at Transparent Chennai

Recently I participated in a seminar on infrastructure law in India and made a presentation on the costs and benefits of the Chennai metro rail project. The seminar, hosted by the Centre for Law and Development at National University of Advance Legal studies, included discussions on public transportation projects being undertaken in different cities in the country. In July 2010 Parisar, an NGO in Pune, had also organised a national round table on “The City and the Metro” in which several issues were raised about the ineffectiveness of the metro rail as a mass public transit system. Constructing metro rail systems entail large expenditures that many critics argue are not offset by the envisaged gains and non-economic costs such as environmental degradation, social costs including exclusion of low-income neighbourhoods, and even threats to heritage properties, such as in the case of the Chennai project. Metro rail projects have also been observed to intensify pressure on the real estate along the corridors. So far, only Kolkata and Delhi had a metro system, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai are building theirs and Hyderabad has approved the project. However, twelve Tier II cities, including Kochi, are slated to join this ‘elite’ list! [1]

Despite, the central government guidelines for metro rail systems state that only cities with populations of more than three million and a potential ridership is at least one million when the metro is operational would be eligible for metro rail systems, Kochi with a population of six lakhs and the urban agglomeration has about 21 lakh has got approval! Mr Sohan, a former mayor of Kochi and an active opponent of the Kochi metro project, shared arguments highlighting the pitfalls of a metro system in the city. He said that instead of reviving its ferry and bus networks, the Government of Kerala was pushing for it despite the city not meeting even the inadequate requirements. The metro rail project is estimated to cost more than Rs.5400 crore compared to Rs.100 crore required to revive the ferry system! Another blatant violation of the guidelines is that the project has been exempt from an Environment Impact Assessment, raising concerns about adequate attention and protection of the city’s large green cover. The recent victory of the Congress party in the state is seen to be pivotal to getting the central government, which was earlier reluctant, to commit 20 percent equity to the state-centre partnership. The state government will contribute 30 percent and the remaining will be taken as a loan from Japanese International Cooperation Agency.[2]

The need for the Kochi metro rail project was identified in a study by RITES limited and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) which has been hailed a success has been a consultant for this project. Ironically, the DMRC has been criticised for not meeting its projected ridership targets despite cancellation of 120 competing bus routes and a 130 percent increase in bus fares! Unfortunately, many local and state governments fail to take cognizance of the fact that there are effective, sustainable and financially viable transportation alternatives to metro rail systems – pedestrian and cycling being the most notable. What Indian cities need is a comprehensive outlook towards public transportation, one that focuses on moving people, not cars, trains and corporations!

[2] http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article3157272.ece

Roshan Toshniwal

The mayor presented the Corporation’s annual budget at the Council meeting on March 12, 2012, a meeting that I was able to observe. The meeting was interesting to watch because it showed the extent of partisanship and political posturing in the Council, and how few civic issues are seriously discussed.

The mayor started the meeting by speaking briefly about pressing civic issues like garbage being dumped in Pallikaranai and Kodungaiyur instead of being recycled, roads not being maintained properly, and street lights that were broken. His promised solution? The magical words: “Amma will take care of this.”

A reporter I spoke to from the New Indian Express told me that the budget is usually prepared by the mayor, Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner with inputs from the councillors. Before the budget items were read out, the councillors and the press were given a CD and a large book containing basic information about the budget. The mayor read out the items in the order given in the book . He gave an introduction to every item, but this introduction did not give me much knowledge about the context and relevance of the item being presented in the budget. The leader of the ADMK on the floor commented on the budget for ten minutes, and praised “Amma” for such an inclusive budget.

Meanwhile, the councillors and some reporters from the press were given a huge bag with a picture of the Ripon building which contained papers containing details of the budget. When the mayor announced that there will be a discussion on the budget after lunch, the councillors and the reporters from the press were shocked because these discussions usually happen after a week or two. During the lunch break, Mr. Subash Chandra Bose, a DMK councilor and the leader of the opposition, was surrounded by reporters who were interviewing about his take on the budget. He said that the presented budget was not very different from that which was prepared by the mayor last term, but he refused to answer any further questions from reporters.

In the post-lunch session, reporters were not allowed to bring their cameras for the discussion. As the mayor started the discussion, Mr. Subash Chandra Bose interrupted to say that having the discussion then was not right and went against the procedure. The mayor said that eighteen councillors would get a chance to speak and critique the budget and that the DMK councillors would also get a turn to speak. The DMK councillors, agitated by this response from the mayor, walked out of the session. Then, the session continued without any distraction.

The mayor read out the names of the Councillors selected to speak that day. When their names were announced the councillors stood up and spoke. Surprisingly to me, every single ADMK councillor had the same thing to say: “We thank Amma for this excellent budget. We are very happy that the problems of our ward were considered while preparing the budget.” Only one or two councillors also complained that their ward be given more importance in the next budget. After this, the discussion ended and the Council was dismissed. The reporters ran off in a hurry to interview any Councillor they could catch hold of.

Observing the Budget session of the Council was extremely interesting. I was surprised by how little substantive discussion of the issues there was in the session. I was also surprised by how many of the interventions made by sitting councilors focused on praising the Chief Minister rather than speaking about issues relating to their ward, or problems they found with the budget or the budget making process. As a resident of Chennai, it was disappointing.

Transparent Chennai hopes to undercover more about the council and the budget, and more about how individual wards and ward councilors get money allocated for their ward’s problems in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!

- Srinidhi Sampath Kumar

Construction of any large public transportation infrastructure projects is bound to require changes in traffic flows but they need not necessarily disrupt them. However, the Chennai metro construction belies this. Work at Anna Nagar began on December 15, 2011 and instructions redirecting traffic were published in newspapers. But pedestrians and motorists are still confused, and the police and metro workers are now involved in a daily battle to monitor and manage the traffic around the construction sites!

One of the reasons for this chaos is that information about traffic diversions was not prominently displayed in newspapers, nor was the available information clear. Take a look at the map that accompanied the information on changes in traffic in an article in the Times of India. This map is not very clear, nor is it comprehensive. The illustration does not show roadblocks, relocated and newbus stops, parking spaces and places where parking is banned, or the part of the road blocked due to flyover construction on Inner Ring road. It also does not indicate areas of potential traffic bottlenecks,such as vehicles trying to cross the three unmanned road junctions on 13^th Main Road.

a) From 18^th main road- 13^th main road junction till– 2^nd Avenue junction.

b) From 6^th Avenue – 13^th main road junction till – 2^nd Avenue junction

c) 15^th main road from 13thmain road junction till – 100 Feet road. (Only the resident vehicles could enter this from the 100 Feet road as the barricades cover almost the entire road on the 100 Feet road side.

d) From 13^th Main road – 2^nd Avenue junction to Thirumangalam- Inner Ring road to 18^th Main road –Inner Ring road.

e) From 13^th Main road – 2^nd Avenue junction till Anna Nagar Roundtana till 4^th Avenue (Shanti colony junction)

f) From Chintamani junction (1^st Avenue- 2^nd Avenue junction) till Anna Nagar Roundtana till 4^th Avenue (Shanti colony junction)

g) The 4^th Avenue (Shanti colony road) till 5^th avenue junction.

The situation has been made more chaotic by the removal of traffic infrastructure. For instance, there are no traffic signals on 2^nd Avenue now, and pedestrians have to scurry to cross the 100-feet of the road. Due to the one ways and traffic diversions, there are now only 2 working traffic signals in the entire Anna Nagar neighbourhood.5^th Avenue, 10^th Main Road and many other main roads criss-crossing the 2^nd ,4^th and 6^th Avenue have been blocked on one or the other side to restrict the flow of vehicles. Large stores like Nilgiri’s and Mary Brown have relocated to 4^th avenue as the Metro barricades blocked their entrances. Residences and shop entrances on 2^nd Avenue between 12^th and 13^th main roads are also barricaded, and about 12 feet of road is left for residents to access their homes. The Metro barricades have taken up 50-60% of the road width. The residents of 4^th Avenue and 13^th Main Road have also lost their peace and tranquillity to the burgeoning sound of vehicle horns.

Pedestrians scurrying for safety- Crossing one ways is a hard task

All the tallu vandi or push cart vendors selling fruits and tender coconut, temporary sheds on the sidewalk selling temple accessories, frame and puncture repair shops have been removed from the one-ways. The sidewalks which were 10 feet wide on both sides of 2^nd Avenue have been reduced to 5 feet now. Parts of 2^nd Avenue are now a no-parking zone, while the advent of new commercial space on 4^th Avenue road has increased vehicular movement, all adding to the confusion and congestion.

Bus stops have also been moved throughout the neighbourhood, adding to the confusion. The Thirumangalam bus stop has been shifted to the junction of 2^nd Avenue and 13^th Main Road while the Blue Star bus stop on 2^nd Avenue has been moved to the crossing of the 2^nd and 5^th Avenue. Both the bus stops have no seating and are at road level without any protection from sun or vehicles. Earlier there were no bus routes through 4^thAvenue (Shanti colony) road but due to the diversions there are 2 make-shift bus stops at 5^th Avenue and 12^thMain Road junctions. Information about bus stop changes were also not clearly marked or announced.

What will continue to add to the chaos is the fact that the traffic diversions will be changed as work progresses along the road, but the public is still in the dark about the timelines for the changes.The inconvenience is bound to increase as the work on Nelson Manickam- Anna Archflyover has started. It was held up due to denial of required permissions from the Traffic Police. The Inner Ring Road at Thirumangalam junction has been reduced to just 2/3^rds of the road space as the work on flyover connecting Koyambedu and Padi is currently in progress.

In the other areas where the Metro Rail work is on like the Nehru Park on E.V.R. Periyar Salai and Thiru-vi-ka Park on Pulla Avenue in Shenoy Nagar,similar diversions have changed the fabric of these areas. At Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital, the cutting of many trees to expand the road increased the decibel levels inside the hospital, and is an also huge discomfort to residents and pedestrians because of the loss of shade on the roads.When certain parts of E.V.R. Periyar Salaiwere made one-way for a few days the congestion on roads which were carrying the diverted traffic was unmanageable, and the traffic police struggled to find alternatives.

The Metro, if well built and well run, will certainly have a positive impact on the city, especially on the commuters who will rely on it. But its construction has already deeply disrupted the urban fabric of the city, especially near the central activity centres such as markets and public transportation hubs. And once the metro becomes operational, the land-use of Anna Nagar is bound to change even faster from largely residential to commercial due to increased transportation access.Unfortunately, citizens are not being made an integral part of the decision making process and are instead consulted in a limited way, nor are their needs taken into account in the planning and implementation of this project.

Roshan Toshniwal

Can you imagine someone in Poes Garden complaining about roads that have not been laid in a decade? Or a Boat Club area resident complaining about the heaps of waste accumulated at the corner because the garbage collectors have not turned up in weeks?

The system is always kind to the affluent, or at least, fair to them in an otherwise unfair world. The already-disadvantaged more often than not, get a raw deal. Historically, the socially and economically weak Dalits have occupied the fringes of any village, furthest away from the centre where life would be infinitely more convenient, and perhaps continue to sit on the fringes. Many people escape to urban space for anonymity and the promise of a better life and livelihood, only to realize that the city is just as discriminating. We still hear oftribes in their newly minted housing colony located right on top of the Karuvadikuppam garbage dump in Puducherry, and see slum dwellers being “rehabilitated” to sites outside of city limits, many kilometers away from solid sources of livelihood, decent schools and adequate infrastructure. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case even in a housing scheme meant for the poor, with active involvement by the World Bank and with “accessibility” as one of its stated objectives.

Transparent Chennai is now working on a project on access to housing finance in low income neighbourhoods, and one of the sites that is of interest to us is Muthamizh Nagar in Kodungaiyur that benefited from the World Bank Sites and Services scheme (with the Tamil Nadu Housing Board)in the late 1970s. We were looking to locate the housing for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) on the site map (and we at TC are obsessed with maps in general), and this is what we find:

In what seems to be a well-planned project, the EWS plots, A type (indicated with blue markers) and B type (indicated with orange markers), are the ones of interest to us. In the interior blocks 3, 4, 5 and 6, these houses are located in the most interior parts of the block, along the narrowest roads (16’ wide). That makes them furthest away from the widest main roads of the block, along which the High Income Group (HIG) and Middle Income Group (MIG) houses are situated. As for the peripheral blocks 1,2,7 and 8, the EWS occupy the fringes, again furthest away from the main roads. Additionally, these houses are also located along sewage channels that sort of outline the site, and next to industrial plots.

In a housing program that aims to prioritize housing for the EWS sections,this is strange and most ironic. EWS houses make up around 78% of all houses in the project, and all these are (meticulously planned and) placed in the most inconvenient parts of the site. Sure, true to its name, the site per se also has services and amenities such as adequate balwadis, playgrounds and health centres located within itself, but accessibility cannot be just about these things, and certainly cannot be discriminatory.

Living next to industrial plots obviously cannot be pleasant – air and noise pollution are inevitable. (Even if we were to give the planners the benefit of doubt for choosing to locate potential labourers in these industries close to their livelihoods, living right next to industrial plots can hardly be an ideal situation.)  Many residents discussed the problems with being located next to sewage canals – the stench, the mosquitoes and the mediocre sanitation is general. Not many regular efforts have been taken up by the Corporation to address these issues either, unless repeated complaints were recorded from the residents who sometimes get together themselves to clean the canal.Fancy the affluent doing that.

Narrow roads may have not-so-obvious inconveniences. Garbage collection may prove tougher than usual, because the trucks cannot come into these streets, and thus, garbage accumulation is more likely. A resident commented on how her daughter is dropped a long way away from her house in the middle of the night because big IT company buses cannot come into her road. The Metro Water lorry also can stop only on wide streets, and that means that those living on the narrow, interior ones, especially those in A type houses, have to walk considerable distances to fetch water for everyday use. Another mentioned how the road has not been laid in 11 years – Corporation workers are quick to wash their hands off a tiny, seemingly insignificant street as not being a part of their jurisdiction. These streets are not particularly suited for upward mobility either – if residents were able to afford cars, they cannot even drive them into their own streets, forget being able to park them there. (This again is ironic, because housing for the poor was meant to be made affordable by means of cross subsidization. Since price of HIG and MIG plots/houses were high, real estate prices of the whole area shot up[1], and it seems from field work, that the site has been considerably gentrified.) Alternately, those who are least likely to be able to afford vehicles of their own are the ones who have to walk the longest distances to get to the market and main roads of the neighbourhood. What accessibility are we talking about?

(Although, to provide some perspective to the gentrification issue, this is a problem in most affordable housing projects in the city. Home ownership is highly valued, but still, the poor often rent out or sell their free/subsidized housing for income.And in a large, ever growing city, there is always high demand for housing. Thus, housing for the poor often goes into the hands of the not-so-poor.)

This has been one of the distressing revelations of the project so far, even if not directly related to what we are mainly researching. We hope to write about more such as we go along – not just the distressing ones, but also some encouraging ones, hopefully.

- Priti Narayan and S.P. Srinivasan, Research Associates.

Since October, our newly appointed officials in the Corporation of Chennai have been trying to work out how to remove all the garbage that now lines our streets, which is something that has become a major concern to residents in this city. Spearheaded by the Mayor, who has promised to take up ‘garbage clearance on a war footing’ (The Hindu, October 26, 2011) a whole slew of initiatives have been planned to deal with this problem. From new contractors with new systems of garbage collection, complaint redressal systems at the ward level, and technology driven top-down accountability mechanisms within the Corporation, there is no doubt that our corporators are trying to be proactive (The Hindu, January 27, 2012). However despite all these efforts, it is important to remember that this is a sector that has a long history of failed plans. Take for example the MSW (solid waste and handling) rules of 2000- while segregation has been mandated by these rules, even today garbage is still indiscriminately collected and dumped at Perungudi and Kodangaiyur, Chennai’s primary dumpyards (The New Indian Express, April 21 2011).

In such an environment, enforcement of rules and plans becomes the critical issue; and one way of engendering better enforcement is to focus on monitoring those responsible and holding them to account. However, while there are efforts being made to bring accountability into Chennai’s waste management architecture, our Corporation has failed to provide space to a key agent in bringing about this change- the citizen.

Looking at the current plan for better accountability, which talks about a 4 tier system for monitoring different facets of our municipal waste management (The Hindu, January 27, 2012), it becomes apparent that the role of the citizen in the oversight mechanism has been completely bypassed. The purview of accountability currently lies only within the various tiers of the Corporation as no effort has been made to provide for an interface that could disseminate the tremendous amount of potentially extremely useful data that will be generated through the accountability system into the public realm. Instead, citizens have to be content with the councilor grievance redressal system, which is comparatively quite feeble because apart from questions of it’s efficacy (after all complaining to our councilors is nothing new) it is not integrated into the more robust Corporation accountability mechanism and thus it cannot ensure that garbage on a street that has received a lot of complaints gets flagged inside the Rippon building.

This also ensures that the struggle for cleaner streets remains localized. After all, with no information on the overall quality of garbage collection in a ward or across wards, residents can only protest to the presence of garbage in their immediate environment, which impairs the ability of citizens and citizen groups to get together to demand for ward level improvements to garbage collection.

By undervaluing the role of the citizen, the current accountability mechanism created by the Chennai Corporation lacks the teeth to facilitate a tangible shift to more efficient and equitable service delivery practices in garbage collection. Currently, with not even the new routes and timings of garbage collection being made available in the public domain, our Corporation’s commitment to genuine accountability must be questioned.

Under these circumstances citizen generated maps that assess garbage infrastructure and service delivery in their ward or area can be a very useful tool to residents, as it can help make stronger and more informed demands to the government. The methodology that was used to collect information on garbage in Ward 176 during the ward accountability experiment is ideal for such a task.

To test how effective such maps can be, we are working with residents from the Kalakshethra Residents Welfare Association (KCRWA) who are eager to improve waste management in their area (around 14 streets- Map 1).

Map 1- Streets of interest to residents in KCRWA

These maps will contain routinely updated information on locations of surface garbage and debris found in their area as well as information on dumpsters that are either broken or overflowing. They will be available online and will also contain data about the kind of surface garbage found along with pictures. Residents from this area can monitor progress online as well as submit data, which will then be integrated into the online map. We are eager to see if this becomes a tool that residents find useful when dealing with their service providers and councilors.

Siddharth Hande

A few articles have recently highlighted the ways in which road management in Chennai is sub-par. While an arterial road visibly carries the bulk of city’s traffic, collector/ interior roads need further attention. A recent article in The Hindu cautioned that interior roads in the city currently carry traffic volumes far exceeding their carrying capacity. This leads to faster deterioration of the road and causes inconvenience to the residents on these roads.

Another article in the Hindu reports that the authorities are now concentrating on optimising road space on the three arterial roads on which the Chennai Metro Rail will be built. This is good, but there is already no balanced allocation of road space on these roads. In one of my previous blog posts I had highlighted the high rate of accidents on these arterial roads. The width of the roads is disproportionately more than that of the pavements, and pedestrians are forced to walk on the road. Not only does this make them vulnerable to accidents, it also slows vehicles. The authorities tried to mandate traffic lanes on some of the arterial roads, but this has largely failed. This was mainly because of non-availability of dedicated lanes for particular modes of transport like buses. But lanes are still important to decongest roads and to reduce accidents. And investing in more footpaths is also important. Are the authorities in charge of Chennai’s roads – the Corporation, the State transport department, the State Highways Department – taking all of these different factors into consideration?

Meanwhile, a focus on building better roads may not be the most important intervention needed in the city. A more holistic strategy needs to be devised to encourage motorists to switch from their vehicles to a convenient mode of public transport. An integrated, and well planned network of pavements will ensure no conflicts of space between pedestrians and motorists and will help achieve the targets set in the Road Safety policy.

A few weeksago, Transparent Chennai hosted a talk by Mark Gorton,an entrepreneur and advocate of walkable cities, who insisted that the situation in urban India could be improved by:

• Investing and prioritising pedestrian and cycling infrastructure over flyovers and motor- vehicle infrastructure.
• Better public transportation systems as they move larger number of people.
• Suppression of private automobiles by creating disincentives for cars which would force people to switch to public transport.
• Planning smart landuse so that the locations having large number of workingpeople are connected with good public transport, making the use of public transit more feasible. Based on his experience in the West, where urban sprawl is much larger, he feels that planning for buses and pavements could come later, but buildings and land-use policies needed prior attention and planning.

In contrast to the West, our cities in India are much denser and the urban sprawl is also limited. Except for Delhi all other cities have high two-wheeler to car ratios, and a fair portion of trips are made through public transport and walking. This means that moving towards more sustainable, walker friendly cities does not require as much work here as it does in the West. Yet, the authorities here are putting much less thought into this than they are in cities like New York and London. The authorities should take all the above concerns into consideration while upgrading the roads and should insist on participation from the residents to create a workable solution.

Roshan Toshniwal