Chennai: potholed paradise

On New Year's eve, many of the Hyundai Accents received by Chennai Police gratis from the Korean carmaker were at their screaming best. They were zipping along in some places, their lights flashing and sirens wailing or standing with metallic efficiency at other locations (what they achieved is not clear, though).

In 2007, Chennai is no different from what it was a year ago, when there were no freebie Hyundais for "patrolling." After the Northeast Monsoon and with a faceless Mayor at Ripon Building (M. Subramaniam, heard of him?), the metro's roads are a long trail of potholes.

Apparently, the somnolent occupants of the Corporation headquarters have decided to allocate money for road repairs, but the Zonal Officers (Assistant Commissioners) are in no hurry to do basic repair work to fill up the potholes. So in most places, you simply bump along and pay the automobile mechanic more.

This sort of indifference contrasts with the hype generated by globizens about the way this hypermetro is making waves. There are colourful advertisements in newspapers claiming to offer "English" gardens with "Spanish" villas in their midst, tall glass and steel marvels housing BPOs who are linked to international capitals. You only have to spend a fiver on the Mass Rapid Transit System that travels the length of the Cooum and Buckhingham Canal, which are nothing but open sewers, to see what a travesty of truth Chennapatnam is!



The enormous amounts of waste generated by the villa types gets carted to shanties lining these canals, where some of it is segregated for onward sale for crude recycling. The rest is simply dumped on the riverside. The waste plastic and white board dumped summarily in this fashion provides some weak relief to the black sewage-marked banks of the watercourses, while the shanties appear in the background, rusty reminders that there is a city that is invisible to the chatterati and which the media has stopped talking about because it is no longer fashionable to do so.

Showing Chennai like it is, from the MRTS

If you run a search for Chennai on YouTube or Google Video, you see some very basic videos of what this pattanam is famous for.

The crazy way Chennai remains mobile strikes me. There are some foreigners who have put in footage shot from cyclerickshaws and autorickshaws. Others have endangered their lives to shoot scenes of the "pride of Chennai," the 3 km long IT corridor, from the pillion of two wheelers.

I think the future lies with trains and buses, and the only rudimentary video of the city's elevated urban rail that I could locate on YouTube is by someone who goes by the name of Abhiramia:

Here it is



Though the video presents a very familiar perspective for the Chennaiite, to the visitor, it shows the often decrepit state of housing, the profilerating squalor and the generally dirty appearance of the city. Most of it is in Mylapore in the video. Catch a few glimpses of British-era buildings at Chepauk. The seemingly beautiful river is devoid of most river life species because it contains only sewage, fed in by the ever helpful Chennai Metrowater agency that is supposed to treat the city's sewage.

Lalu, Harvard, Wharton, IIMs...

Union Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's contribution to the so-called turning around of the Indian Railways is now the subject of study by two business schools, Harvard and Wharton.

There are few materials available on record to show that Mr. Yadav has implemented any special management measures that have led to a profitable spell for the railways.



By most accounts, the Minister has been wise enough to leave the running of the gargantuan railway system to the somewhat reclusive set of professionals who make up the Indian Railway Technical Service and the Indian Railway Accounts Service.

As I have been repeatedly pointing out, Mr. Yadav and his less prominent deputy in the Ministry, Mr. Velu have done little for the Mass Rapid Transit System in Chennai. The picture shows it all. There is a lot of real estate in the MRTS stations, such as Chintadripet here. But it is completely wasted because the only occupants of the neglected building are some transport contractors and parcel agents for bus operators.

On most days, the approach to the station is dark, the entrance obscured from view by a proliferation of bushes and storm drains without covers that people fall into.

Not the kind of rail transit system that someone from Harvard or Wharton would imagine Mr. Yadav is running at a profit, or come to think of it, even at a loss.

Metro railway for Chennai

At long last, it appears (just appears) that Chennai is moving ahead with a Metro rail project.

Here is A.Srivathsan's report in The Hindu on it.

If the DMK government is intelligent (which is unlikely in its present avatar) it will built a solid metro for the city and stake its claim to have revolutionised mobility in Chennai. The first step of involving the DMRC is positive, but the future course is hazy at present.

Srivathsan makes the important point that the MRTS in Chennai in a sort of stupor because the State Government sees no stake in it, and a similar attitude to the metro rail, bus and suburban rail options in the future will create another dysfunctional system. So far, the State Government has not shown any interest to go beyond its atrophied bus monopoly, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation.

Sadly, the two dravidian parties and the palsied Congress in Tamil Nadu cannot bring themselves to think beyond the immediate future and the filthy lucre that they can make from deals. The other parties, including those professing green credentials, only give the impression that they are perpetrating an elaborate hoax on the State.

There are others also who think that cheaper cars are not the answer to Chennai's mobility problem, metros and buses are. Here is a blog post that reflects this view.

Hit and run and Chennai's 'helpless' police?

Today's report in The Hindu gives the impression that there is little that the Chennai City Traffic Police can do to record evidence about motorists who cause accidents due to sheer arrogance.

The explanation of the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) is on shaky ground for the following reasons:

Technology is available to record evidence on the road in the form of CCTV systems, and one such system has indeed been put up at Spencer's Junction, Anna Salai. If it is not working, the police have only themselves to blame.

The Chennai Police now have 100 more vehicles at their disposal, thanks to the largesse from Hyundai Motor (though this donation, in my view, is unacceptable and totally unethical due to conflict of interest questions). So what is the Police using these vehicles for? Note my earlier posts about fatal accidents early in the morning because no policemen are present and commercial and transport department vehicle drivers couldn't care less about traffic signals.

The Police in Chennai and elsewhere is forever trying to convince the public that it is helpless and unable to perform in a civilised manner because others are not helping it to. In my view, it should stop whining and get down to work.

Tailpiece: It is an amusing thing that the Tamil Nadu government is an absolute ignoramus when it comes to Information Technology. The Government's website puts out a news item from the New Indian Express that claims Chennai City Traffic Police to have launched a website to tackle what is officially termed "traffic chaos." There is a hyperlink in the report to this site: www.cctp.org. Click on it and you get a surprise! It goes to some domain salesman, rather than any useful page from the Police. No wonder the hit-and-run drivers are laughing at the vulgarly muscular and uncouth CCTP.

ECR: Road to hell

Like many other new highways of "global" standards that are snaking across India to cater to the newly affluent and motorised classes, the East Coast Road connecting Chennai to Cuddalore is a monstrosity.

Unlike the developed world, where the onslaught of motorisation and road building has largely spared people from the risk of direct collision with vehicles, India's highways, many of them aided by international financiers like the World Bank, are built only for vehicles.

Too bad that they are planted onto landscapes where people have been living for generations. These roads rip through such communities without the courtesy of even a subway or overpass, for people to cross to the other side. There are also no exits from the highway, no detours to spare the villages.

Little surprise that an estimated 65 people died on ECR during 2006.

There is this nice video on youtube that provides a glimpse to the anarchy that characterises neoliberal India's tolled "superhighways". Note the two-wheeler riders and cyclists travelling on the wrong side, practically coming into the speeding vehicles, the ramshackle commercial and housing structures that exist close to the carriageway, the occasional three-wheeled autorickshaws that transport those who cannot afford the high cost of motorisation and the complete indifference of the vehicular traffic to people's safety.



Of course, the best on youtube on the state of India's road traffic is here

New platform ticket vending machines at Chennai Central

At the best of times, Chennai Central is a beehive of activity, to some a functional anarchy of teeming thousands who throng a stately building that is familiar to generations. It takes little imagination to realise that the major part of the passenger handling areas of this premier railway terminal were created during colonial rule (just as the British put in more rail tracks to expand their own interests than free India's leaders have been able to, to pursue theirs).

Two new things strike you at Chennai Central.

There are a couple of sleek-looking platform ticket vending machines of foreign manufacture on the portico in the entrance. Neither is functional as yet, and I doubt if they will be around for long. It is of course, debatable whether you need German-built machines when you have many people who can find gainful employment (remember that machines need to be refilled with tickets and change, which requires people, though fewer than to operate separate counters).

Then there is a bright green kiosk on the bus bay outside Chennai Central now. This belongs to that somnolent bureaucracy, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation that runs the city bus service. The objective is to dispense daily, weekly and monthly season tickets. On a weekday afternoon, I came across this kiosk, nicely and cosily shut. I learn that the passes and tickets are only available in the first fortnight of the month. It is a pity that MTC cannot use modern technology and a matching attitude for its operations: Its buses are ramshackle and dangerously old, dirty, unwashed and polluting. Its crews are surly, rude, abusive and unabashedly homophobic. Its bureaucracy is faceless, arrogant even in its obscurity and closed to reform. Above all, it is unredeemingly corrupt.

Spanish living through a Chennai lens

Is there something inherently wrong about the way Indians have lived for four millennia? Apparently, there is nothing much to draw from a long history of civilisation in habitat or architectural terms, if you go by the rash of advertising in the Property Plus supplement of The Hindu.

The advertisers promise locales and lifestyles that are far removed from India's civilisational history.

Today's edition of PP has an advertisement explaining the Spanish vision of the Alliance Group, which is promoting villas with a hispanic flavour in suburban Porur (watch a video of this Spanish vision on the promoter's website). Each of these villas will cost Rs.65 lakhs to Rs. two crores and they are truly international in such dollar-converted prices. It is also interesting that this new prestige address will combine English gardens with Spanish villas, an esoteric mix that is expected to tickle the sensibilities of largely the newly rich Indian catapulted to prosperity by globalisation and liberalisation.

But be warned that these villas with their imaginary flamenco dancers, toreadors and Englishmen walking terriers on lawns are here on Indian terra firma. The gated denizens of Porur have no access to good sanitation for their area. Sanitation and health are issues that the English settled in the 19th century before they developed a vision of urbanisation.

The Alliances, DLFs and other carpetbaggers must focus first on fundamentals and learn from India's own civilisational record, on sanitation, community spaces, health and welfare before rolling out their fictional landscapes.

The more realistic picture is available from a neighbouring CMDA approved layout called Jeeva Nagar, which you can find here.

So many crores for everyone except the poor Chennai pedestrian

Today's newspapers carry the story of the Tamil Nadu Government cutting sharply the money that cinema theatres can collect from patrons all over the State, from January 1, 2007.

The day's stories also include a major plan to revamp urban infrastructure in the Chennai suburbs and Madurai region, involving astronomical sums of money.

Sometime ago, Minister K N Nehru had stated to the media that the State had sought a huge sum to improve transport infrastructure in Chennai -- Rs.1,300 crores to be exact, under the JNNURM.

In all of these announcements, the poor pedestrian of the city gets next to nothing. Take the United Progressive Alliance government's Common Minimum Programme, JNNURM or National Urban Transport Policy and one finds a great deal of discussion on pedestrian facilities. But when it comes to forking out the big bucks, the man (and woman and child) on the street is nowhere!

Lalu Prasad Yadav wants to raise Railway Profits

A correction to a report in The Hindu published today says Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav wants to raise the profits of the Railways by a few thousand crores.

The Reader's Editor says, "A sentence in "Garib Rath may run from all State capitals: Lalu" (December 11, 2006) was: "Mr. [Lalu] Prasad said his target was to increase the railway profit from Rs. 13.5 crore to Rs. 20 crore in the next fiscal." It should have been Rs. 13,500 crore to Rs. 20,000 crore."

My own contention is that Mr.Yadav has to only galvanize the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Chennai, which is sitting on several hundred crores worth of property in this metro.

If the stations on this line are put to good use, they are sure to generate significant levels of revenue.




The picture here shows what could have been well-patronised shops in one of the MRTS stations (Chintadripet). Their sorry state shows that Southern Railway has little idea of how to improve its revenues.

London is the place to be on New Year's eve!

Here's what London is offering everyone in the city on New Year's eve. Can our shortsighted politicians and bureaucrats imagine a situation like this in Chennai? If you get my point, I am talking about the distance yet to be travelled to have a decent transport service in Chennai that was Madras, India.



"Passengers throughout the Capital will be able to travel for free on these services during the prime festive hours, for journeys starting between 11.45pm and 4.30am.

In addition, the Mayor is funding free travel on selected National Rail services between midnight and 5am, particularly in areas with fewer Tube connections."

As you can see, the idea is that you don't have to drink and drive. Don't kill yourself and don't kill others.

Harvard economist Greg Mankiw talks about walking

In his blog post today, Harvard economist and popular blogger Greg Mankiw advises students to walk, in the face of some evidence published by the NY Times that bicycle helmets may put you at risk.

But how easy is it to walk in faraway Chennai?

Take a look at the picture below for the answer. It was taken in Chintadripet, Chennai, on the perimeter of the Napier or May Day Park.



What you see is a power cable running across a footpath (or sidewalk, as in the US) that is the size of a ribbon. This power cable is good enough to fry you to a crisp, if it leaks at any point, and remember that these are rainy days in Chennai, India.

Despite intensive research on Chennai's public health (including an ongoing study by the Harvard School of Public Health), this is the state of affairs in general. In Chennai, everything is fraught with risks. Including your car, as the incident involving three men in a Hyundai Santro proved on October 28.

Chennai, the World Bank and footpaths

I have always maintained, even in my email exchanges with the World Bank's India office that its money has been used to defeat the objectives of sensible and civilised urbanisation.

Here are some scenes that show that all the talk of modernising Chennai is only about commerce. A truly modern and civilised city must cater first to its people. But Chennai is focussed on automobiles -- a decadent, Americanised and people-unfriendly model that is actively aided by the commerce-building strategies of the World Bank and its cohorts.



The scene below shows that the Chennai authorities, municipal, metropolitan development and police are all very tolerant towards encroachment of public space. The devotion to unlawfully exploiting footpaths is being condoned at the risk of the pedestrian losing life or limb.

See who is polluting Chennai's air

This is the official record of vehicular emissions in Chennai, from the Central Road Research Institute, in 2003.

If this does not make people in this metro anxious, no one can save them.

When it rains...

Here is an image from one of India's most ambitious metros, showing how helpless people are when it rains.

Bear in mind that property prices in Chennai are at unprecedented highs, and in this area, which is Circular Road, Kodambakkam, the current rate is about Rs.4,000 per square foot.

Chennai Corporation's 'mud'dled clean-ups

In April 2006, The Hindu reported that the Chennai Corporation is supposed to remove the silt deposited during clean-up operations by Metrowater immediately from the site.




People in Chennai have discovered these past few weeks that the Corporation is not willing to clear its own silt removed from the storm drains, not to speak of the filth deposited along the shrinking city sidewalks by Metrowater. That is something pedestrians have to live with even in the 21st century. As I have come to believe, Chennai's managers want only able-bodied, young, fully sighted, intrepid and rich men to use the vehicle-choked roads and broken down, trap-like sidewalks. There is no place for women, children, old, sick and disabled people here!

Today, The Hindu carried a photo of the indifference of the Corporation, on G.N.Chetty Road, T.Nagar. The story is the same in Zone Eight of the Corporation, in Kodambakkam (from Brindavan Street to Rajnikant's Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam). Incidentally, this road is used by blind people to reach a hostel located near the Kalyana Mandapam.

Chintadripet : Far from profitable for MRTS

So many people are breathless about Lalu Prasad Yadav speaking at the IIM about his stewardship of the Indian Railways and the profits it has shown.

If only Mr. Yadav would visit the Chennai MRTS line (locally referred to as the "flying train" because it is elevated along most of its alignment) to see how badly the Southern Railway is doing. It does not help Mr. Yadav that his junior colleague from the purportedly environment-loving PMK party, Mr. Velu is from Tamil Nadu.

One look at this station entrance at Chintadripet is enough to communicate how badly things are going for the MRTS and its commuters.



The ongoing monsoon has witnessed rainwater lashing the station entrance, close to the ticketing booth. Dogs seeking shelter have become regular inside the circulating area, and they don't hesitate to leave something behind, which there is no one to clean up.

There is no lighting inside the station other than in the concourse (circulating area), so you must approach the core of the station in pitch darkness. And here is the worst part: there are huge holes in the ground, into which you might fall and break a bone! Recently, I witnessed one man with his shin all bloody after falling into a drain pit that has no cover, near the in gate.

This is such a pity because the MRTS has built expensive stations that have tens of thousands of square feet of built up space, which can very well earn the Railways revenue. If not, they could be turned into park and ride lots, as originally planned. They could also be a combination of both. A few of the shop areas are today occupied by the cargo wings of bus operators. These are barely active at night, and only the workers loading materials are found here. Hardly the picture of a bustling commuter train station.

For a contrast, see this picture of the Westminster station opposite the British Houses of Parliament, that I took on a visit in mid-October this year.



The MRTS is among the best examples of how Indian bureaucracy badly manages potentially profitable assets, even in an otherwise professionally-run technical service like the Railways.

Despite the high rental rates in the Central district of Chennai, these MRTS stations appear desolate and deserted. Most areas earmarked for commercial activity are empty. They are ghostly in appearance, dark, dank, dysfunctional and economically ruinous for the system. The rides are overpriced, especially in comparison with the bus. There is no integration with the city bus system, run by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation of the State Government. Even the condition set by the Central Government in India demanding that the States set up a transit management authority that will monitor integration of bus and rail has failed to evoke any response.


The irony is all the greater because India is among the countries that is contributing heavily to global warming and climate change. If it has successful rail systems, it will help the world cool down. It would also help many people in Chennai breathe easier and travel ethically.

'Barefoot' cops and airconditioned Hyundai patrol cars

That Chennai is a city with funny priorities is well known.

We have heard about the gifting of 100 air conditioned patrol cars by Hyundai Motor Company, and today comes the report that it will spread its 'goodwill' to other cities in Tamil Nadu.

But I would like to present to the world the classic face of the Chennai policeman, seen in this image. This scene at the junction of United India Colony Fourth Main Road and Arcot Road epitomises the kind of policeman that this squalid metropolis can boast of.

What is the point of adding to the car fleet of such a poorly motivated, unimpressive, unprofessional, technology-illiterate and corrupt force ? What we need is policing with a more professional approach, better evidence gathering mechanisms to prevent corrupt elements cooking up facts and records.

The boom in the economy has only raised the incidence of bribe-taking, with little impact on the ramshackle, broken down road infrastructure, the lack of environmental support systems such as drains and canals, all of which have eroded the quality of life in Chennai. Of what use is 8 pc GDP growth when it means so little for the public?

'CO poisoning': Chennai's "Coffin" Hyundai Santro 'being analysed'

Today's report in The Hindu states that the Hyundai Santro which killed three people on G.N.Chetty Road, T.Nagar is being analysed by experts to determine what had led to the fatal situation.

This report strangely makes almost no mention of the alleged failure of the locking mechanism, which is thought to have prevented the occupants of the car from either opening the windows or doors.

Meanwhile, many bloggers who have been gushing about the most modern Accent model patrol cars available with Chennai police courtesy Hyundai, will be disappointed to note that the City Police is yet to announce a protocol for their use.

For those who have little or no knowledge of how police in India work, it should be instructive to know that there is no effective quick response mechanism to distress.
Like 911 in the US, one must dial 100. Contrary to the perception that the control room has all the information about the caller based on the location from which he has dialled,(the caller might be suffering a heart attack or be in an accident or become victim of crime and need not be coherent), Indian emergency services will require a full report before they decide to act.

It is not surprising therefore that many victims or patients prefer to take the closest available transport option and rush to a hospital. In the case of crime, calling the police without adequate preparation (with monetary support, in most cases) may result in the victim being questioned and harassed.

So where do the Hyundai Accent patrol cars fit into all this? We must wait for the Police Commissioner to enlighten us.

Here are some more people who are breathless about the donation of 100 cars to Chennai police: Logesh Tamilselvan and Teakada who also quotes someone as saying that police will respond in three minutes to any emergency. Sorry teakada, my maths is not so good, but how can 100 cars cater to a population of approximately 5 million and reach all emergency spots in three minutes?

Even if you add all the vehicles now with the police (not over 1,000 for Chennai in any case), that still provides a ratio of one car for 5,000 people. I suppose one must call them and cry blue murder only when one actually happens! For all other requirements, call Apollo Hospitals?

I saw one of these new-fangled patrol cars the other day on Anna Salai, blaring the siren behind parked vehicles and then extracting some money for wrong parking. Nobody is defending wrong parking, but is this the three minute emergency that people are talking about?

Hyundai's Santro deaths episode

After last Saturday's disaster involving a Hyundai Santro car in which three people died, the media has been slowly piecing the story together.

Initially, the car brand did not surface in many reports. On Thursday, however, The Hindu reported the follow-up to the incident mentioning Santro clearly.

Today, The Hindu has a report that a Hyundai Santro caught fire in a residential area due to some electrical problems. At least the mainstream media is now acting more ethically and mentioning the car brand, rather than leave readers to guess which car was involved.

As a corporate entity with a major share of the Indian automobile market, Hyundai would have enhanced its credibility if it has responded to the issue and transparently acknowledged the problem, if there was one. That it has not, and it has confined itself to offering free cars to the enforcement authority in Chennai, the City Police speaks rather poorly of its ethics.