Delay in tenement construction puts over 200 conservancy workers in misery in Coimbatore

Coimbatore Corporation and Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board had assured them of completing the work in 15 months, when they were asked to vacate in 2018

The conservancy workers shifted out of V.K.K. Menon Road in the city in 2018 should have returned to their new houses by now. But, they have not.

The workers often gather outside the under-construction tenement discussing when they would be able to move in. They have been doing this for a over a year now as there is no sign of the Board completing the project anytime soon, rues B. Radhakrishnan, a resident.

The Coimbatore Corporation and Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board had asked over 200 workers to vacate their dilapidated houses in V.K.K. Menon Road in November 2018, to construct new houses. At the time, the two agencies assured them of completing the work in 15 months.

The Corporation and Board then began construction of 216 houses sometime in 2019 under the ‘Housing for All’ scheme at ₹ 19.15 crore. They were to accommodate the 216 houses in in nine blocks of 24 flats each with each house measuring at least 430 sq.ft.

At the time of demolishing their dilapidated houses, the two agencies had also promised the workers that they would provide community hall, sewage treatment plant and a few other common amenities..

The delay in completing the project had made life difficult for the workers, many of who were forced to move to rented houses after finding it difficult to live in the temporary structures that the Corporation had built in Sengadu, Mr. Radhakrishnan further says.

R. Karthik, a tenement resident, says he was forced to shift at least three houses since 2018 after people had learnt about his caste.