Building homes like card stacks

As one takes the street from Ripon Buildings to Pulianthope alongside Raja Muthiah Street for about 1.5 km, the lofty house buildings on the Kesava Pillai (Ok.P) Park is tough to overlook.

They had been constructed as a part of a reconstruction undertaking of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), which has been renamed the Tamil Nadu City Habitat Growth Board (TNUHDB). A complete of 864 households residing on the website for greater than three many years in low-rise buildings, constructed earlier by the TNSCB, had been vacated in 2018 because the buildings had grow to be dilapidated.

Moreover demolishing the outdated buildings and establishing 864 new models in high-rise buildings, TNUHDB constructed an extra 1,056 house models that are meant for resettling folks from casual settlements on the banks of the Cooum. The development of the 1,920 models was completed in two phases, in 2019 and 2020, at a complete value of ₹250 crore by PST Engineering Development, a non-public contractor.

As soon as touted as a mannequin undertaking, boasting of more room and different facilities, Ok.P. Park is now mired in an argument following critical issues concerning the high quality of building. At a number of locations, the plastering has crumbled on the slightest strain. The DMK authorities has blamed the AIADMK regime for the poor high quality of labor.

The Centre for Urbanisation, Buildings and Setting (CUBE), an organisation fashioned in collaboration between the Indian Institute of Know-how-Madras and the federal government of Tamil Nadu, has been engaged to evaluate the standard of building.

Primarily based on the preliminary findings, TNUHDB suspended an Assistant Engineer and an Assistant Government Engineer for failing to effectively monitor the standard. Whereas there have been requires making the contractor accountable, the corporate issued a public commercial claiming that it accomplished the undertaking with out compromising on high quality.

TNUHDB, the most important supplier of housing for the weaker sections, is constructing 99,250 housing models below the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (City). Other than this, demolition and reconstruction of round 25,000 dilapidated models are within the pipeline. With such an enormous variety of tasks below its wing, high quality points at its website at Ok.P. Park have given a wake-up name to the authorities. Nonetheless, for 1000’s of households dwelling in lots of such homes constructed by TNUHDB, high quality all the time appeared elusive.

S. Esther, aged round 70, factors to the unfinished flooring in her house unit on the sixth flooring of the 78th block of the TNUHDB tenements at Perumbakkam. Two years in the past, she was evicted from Sathiyavani Muthu Nagar in Chennai together with her 45-year-old daughter P. Lilly Pushpam, who was partially paralysed after a stroke and suffers from a coronary heart illness. The household was resettled at Perumbakkam.

Ms. Esther, the only real breadwinner of the household, commutes over 25 km day by day to Thousand Lights for a housekeeping job that pays her ₹4,000 a month. “I appealed to the officers a number of occasions to allocate an house at the least on the second flooring, if not on the primary flooring, in order that will probably be simple for me and my ailing daughter, however they didn’t hear,” she says. With the raise within the constructing usually not functioning, she says each she and her daughter discover it troublesome to climb six flooring. “As soon as my daughter obtained caught alone within the raise for a couple of hours due to an influence minimize,” she says.

She says the house has a plethora of points with fundamental facilities.

“The principle door was not hinged correctly to the wall. Although I pointed it out to start with itself, it was not fastened,” she says. Of the ₹2,000 COVID-19 monetary help given lately by the State authorities to all rice ration cardholders, Ms. Esther spent ₹1,000 on fixing the door.

M. Alamelu*, a resident of a close-by constructing, complains of water seepage on the partitions from leaky pipelines and water stagnation on the rooftop. Residents of many different buildings make the same grievance.

A. Veerappan, retired Chief Engineer of the Public Works Division (PWD), says the poor high quality of homes offered at subsidised charges or freed from value to the weaker sections has been a perennial problem. J. Sebastin, coordinator of Slum Clearance Board Residents’ Welfare Committee, a non-governmental organisation, agrees with him. He argues that the issue begins with the federal government’s patronising angle — as a result of it’s offered to marginalised sections, high quality needn’t be a precedence.

Transit shelters

That this argument can’t be ignored is obvious from the situation of the transit shelters given to these evicted from Ok.P. Park. Of the 864 households vacated from Ok.P. Park for the reconstruction, a major quantity who may handle rental housing elsewhere or discover different preparations left the positioning. TNUHDB erected makeshift shelters in-situ with tin sheets to accommodate round 200 households who couldn’t go elsewhere. A go to by The Hindu confirmed the abject circumstances in these shelters. All of the households share 4 bogs that always haven’t any water.

Regardless of the preliminary promise that the brand new homes could be prepared in a yr, delays within the undertaking and the pandemic meant that the households continued to reside in these shelters for about three years. Residents say the place is infested with rats. As there isn’t any flooring, even gentle rain renders the ground soggy. “Throughout the monsoon, we endure so much with leaky roofs and water stagnation for days,” says Ok. Vetriselvi, whose eight-member household lives within the shelter. She says her husband has to take their two younger daughters to a public rest room positioned far-off in the event that they must reply nature’s name at odd hours because the bogs on the shelter are sometimes unusable.

She poses a logical query. She factors out that other than the 864 models, TNUHDB constructed an extra 1,056 models within the vacant space that was earlier accessible to them for frequent utility.

“First, it was not proper to take that land with out our consent,” she says. “Secondly, if the plan was to construct on the vacant land too, why not construct there first, shift us there after which demolish our outdated buildings,” she asks. “They didn’t do it as a result of they didn’t actually care and didn’t wish to hear,” she alleges. She stoutly opposes TNUHDB’s demand for ₹1.5 lakh for the allocation of the reconstructed homes. This was not communicated earlier, she says.

G. Selva, secretary of the Chennai Central district unit of the Communist Social gathering of India (Marxist), says that for a undertaking supposedly executed below Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-City geared toward offering ‘pucca’ homes for all, it’s ironic that individuals who earlier had ‘pucca’ homes had been made to reside in squalor for 3 years. “Ideally, the federal government ought to pay them compensation as a substitute of asking for cash.”

D. Sasikala, 45, one other allottee at Ok.P. Park, says that as a result of deal with the standard of building, many different design points are being ignored. “For example, all of the models have been fitted with western bogs. None of us have used them in our lives. Furthermore, water provide is already problematic for us. We’re instructed that western bogs will want extra water,” she says. She says that whereas the federal government highlights that the unit dimension has been elevated to almost 400 sq. ft, the flats, as an entire, seems to be extra cramped now. “There may be much less pure gentle and fewer open area,” she says. Every flooring has 24 models. The corridors are barely one metre huge.

Mr. Sebastin says high quality ought to be seen holistically, from the standpoint of entry to livelihood, healthcare and schooling. “In that sense, constructing tenements at locations like Perumbakkam itself is problematic,” he says.

M. Kavitha*, a resident of Perumbakkam whose household was relocated from the banks of the Cooum 5 years in the past, says that whereas flooding throughout monsoons was cited as the explanation for his or her eviction, the identical drawback continues at Perumbakkam. “Each monsoon, we’re inundated as a result of this space can also be flood-prone. We go with out electrical energy for a lot of days,” she says.

A report submitted in 2018 by an Advocate-Commissioner appointed by the Madras Excessive Courtroom in a case filed by the non-governmental organisation, Pennurimai Iyakkam, has documented the hardships confronted by the folks within the tenements at Perumbakkam, Navalur, Kudapakkam, and AIR Nagar, by way of livelihood, lack of facilities and high quality.

A complete examine carried out by Housing and Land Rights Community (HLRN) and the Info and Useful resource Centre for the Disadvantaged City Communities (IRCDUC) discusses the architectural shortcomings within the tenements, by way of security and catastrophe preparedness, other than all different points.

Neighborhood involvement

IRCDUC founder Vanessa Peter says one of many elementary issues was absolutely the lack of neighborhood engagement. “There’s a Neighborhood Growth Wing at TNUHDB. Nonetheless, the Engineering Part, which is liable for the development, and the Neighborhood Growth Wing don’t appear to work collectively carefully,” she says. She underscores the necessity for robust operational tips that mandate neighborhood consultations on the planning, implementation and analysis phases. “Miniature fashions of the proposed building ought to be displayed at settlements the place housing tasks are undertaken to get the suggestions from folks and perceive what they want,” she says, including that it’s essential to make sure that ladies and youngsters are included on this course of.

Mr. Selva says transparency is required within the execution of the tasks. “The main points of the contractor, the undertaking value, the engineers monitoring the undertaking and the procurement of supplies have to be displayed on the website and made accessible on-line,” he says. He additionally confused the necessity to make provisions for public auditing by the beneficiaries, significantly within the case of reconstruction tasks. Ms. Peter says monitoring committees, comprising ladies from the settlements, ought to be fashioned.

Moreover measures to handle varied elements of high quality, Mr. Veerappan highlights the necessity to instantly tackle key challenges within the Engineering Division. He says one of many long-pending points was the Schedule of Charges (SoR), a doc issued yearly by the PWD to repair prices for all sorts of labor. “Our SoR has all the time been decrease than the associated fee fastened by the Central Public Works Division (CPWD). A contractor can quote solely as per our SoR. The contractor has to make a revenue and permit room for all different bills inside this value… This can naturally have an effect on the standard,” he says. He factors to the long-pending demand that the PWD be allowed to maintain its SoR on a par with the charges of the CPWD.

Mentioning that high quality points raised at Ok.P. Park to date are primarily associated to plastering, he says a standard mistake is to pay much less significance to curing, a technique of wetting the construction to make sure ample moisture within the freshly laid concrete or plastering for a couple of week to 14 days to strengthen it. He provides that lack of periodic upkeep work, which can delay the lifetime of the buildings, can also be a key drawback.

A senior engineer of TNUHDB factors to workers scarcity, particularly within the engineering part. Whereas round 235 tasks are below manner, the workers energy will not be ample to observe the tasks, not to mention perform upkeep. As soon as a undertaking is awarded to a contractor, the field-level engineers are alleged to repeatedly monitor its implementation. TNUHDB additionally engages exterior engineers for inspection. Officers of the rank of Government Engineers or Superintending Engineers lastly log out on the standard.

The senior engineer says it’s usually troublesome for engineers to behave independently to make sure high quality owing to the strain mounted by totally different stakeholders. He factors out that TNUHBD had the same wake-up name a decade in the past when one in all its buildings below building at Amman Kulam in Coimbatore started to sink. It needed to be demolished. “Nonetheless, nothing a lot has modified since,” he says.

He, nevertheless, says TNUHDB has executed a number of tasks of fine high quality. “For example, the one at Gowthamapuram in Chennai, which was lately inspected by the Chief Minister, is a well-executed undertaking,” he says.

TNUHDB Managing Director M. Govinda Rao says the federal government’s current announcement introducing Third Social gathering High quality Monitoring for all of the tasks will go a good distance in making certain high quality. “We’re planning to rope in reputed establishments.”

He acknowledges the necessity for additional strengthening neighborhood engagement. Highlighting that quite a few such modifications will probably be a part of the proposed resettlement coverage, he says the intent to handle the issue of housing from a holistic perspective is mirrored within the change of identify from TNSCB to TNUHDB.

Welcoming the change of identify, activists say solely time will inform whether or not the change stays simply symbolic or interprets into social good.

(*The names have been

modified at their request)