School students affected by Ukkadam flyover project petition collector

Coimbatore: Hit hard by the city corporation’s eviction drive, school students from slaughter house area at Ukkadam on Thursday met district collector T N Hariharan and sought more time to relocate, saying it would be difficult for them to enrol in a different school in the middle of an academic year.
The civic body had issued eviction notices to more than 200 families residing near the slaughter house, asking them to vacate the houses before November 8 to facilitate road expansion work to be taken up as part of the Ukkadam flyover project.

The city corporation had been on a drive to evict houses and shops and hand over land to highways department for the 1.97km-long flyover. Under the project, a four-lane flyover would be constructed from Vincent Road Junction to Karumbukadai Junction for about 1.48km, with a loop opposite to Old Vincent Road for 388 meters and a two-lane from Naaz theatre to Vincent Road for about 248 meters.

“We have been offered alternative accommodation at the housing unit of slum clearance board at Malumichampatti. But from there we have to travel more than two hours to reach our schools. Also, there is no frequent bus services to our schools,” said R Sathya, who studies in a private school at Ukkadam.

Pointing out that autos would charge more than Rs 400 per trip from the housing unit to their schools, she said they cannot afford to pay such a huge amount as their parents were daily wage labourers.

There are more than 100 school students in the locality and more than 50% of them are studying in private schools. “It is difficult to get transfer during the middle of an academic year,” said R Ramathal, one of the parents, who had accompanied the students. “We support the flyover project and would definitely vacate our houses, but we need some more time, so that our children need not suffer.” She urged officials to let them stay in their houses until April. Officials at the district collectorate assured them that they would look into the issue and forward the petition to concerned officials.