Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and the Coimbatore Corporation officials on Wednesday demolished illegal structures that had come up over the years at the conservancy workers’ colony on V.K.K. Menon Road.
The move is the first step the two organisations had taken towards demolishing dilapidated tenements and constructing new tenements there. The Board and Corporation officials said they were in the process of demolishing 279 illegal structures, mostly built by family members of those who lived in the 216 Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements.
The structures were on the road and had come up in the 45 years since the Tamil Nadu Housing Board constructed 216 tenements for the conservancy workers.
Before demolishing the illegal structures, the Board had allotted new tenements at Keeranatham, where it had built 1,280 tenements for the V.K.K. Menon residents and also those who houses were evicted from Ganapathi, Peelamedu and a few other areas. After demolishing the 279 illegal structures, they would in the next few days be demolishing the 216 tenements there. Meanwhile, the Board and Corporation had asked the occupants of the 216 tenements to move out and the latter had earmarked its land in Sengadu, behind the Police Recruit School ground.
The new structures that would come up on the three-acre site on V.K.K. Menon Road would be ground-plus-six-storey structures. At present, it was ground-plus-two-storey structures. This was to make space available for park, playground, child care centre and library, the Board officials added. And, each block in the new tenements would have two elevators with one big enough to accommodate stretchers to meet emergencies.