195 VAMBAY homes in Kotturpuram crumbling
Over 1,500 families in the area given allotment orders in the newly built multi-storey tenements except for families in these homes
Single-room homes with cracked rooftops andceilings, and a long open sewage line in the Kotturpuram tenement put lives at risk
CHENNAI: In Kotturpuram’s Chitra Nagar, on the last stretch along the Adyar river bank, 195 houses built under the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) have begun to crumble. Inside, the ceilings have given way, concrete has fallen in several homes, steel rods are exposed, and bathroom roofing shows holes. Outside, alleys between the blocks are clogged with sewage.
These single-room houses, constructed in 2004 under the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (formerly known as Slum Clearance Board), were built as a replacement shelter for families who lived in huts by the river bank.
Two decades later, they are among the only blocks in Kotturpuram yet to be included in large-scale redevelopment. “We’ve been asking for allotments in the new tenements for more than a year now,” said a resident whose roof had collapsed last week.
Most families here are daily-wage workers. For them, the crumbling houses and severe waterlogging during monsoon have made life precarious. The irony? While more than 1,500 families in the same area have already been given allotment orders in newly built multi-storey tenements, the 195 VAMBAY families continue to wait.
On September 20, 2024, Ward 170 councillor KR Kathirmurugan wrote to the Mayor, flagging the unsafe condition of the blocks and urging relocation into the new tenements coming up in the same area. According to residents, their hopes dimmed after a meeting with Health Minister Ma Subramaniam in July 2025.
“The government will build new tenements for you,” he told them during an interaction. When asked why the current flats are not being given allotments, “The roofs of new houses might fall too,” he added.
The matter was taken up in the Corporation Council in 2024, after which the Mayor’s office wrote to TNUHDB. In a reply dated September 26, 2024, the Board confirmed that 1,800 flats were being built in Kotturpuram, of which 1,454 had been allotted to old residents and 88 to encroachers. As much as 258 flats were not given allotments.
“Steps will be taken to allot these remaining flats to the beneficiaries in Chitra Nagar project area,” the Board said.
A further note on October 21 reiterated that the VAMBAY families “may be allotted” flats if the Board decides. Yet no formal orders have followed. On August 7 this year, all 195 families submitted a joint petition once again, stating they were even ready to surrender the land they were given in 1997 if new flats were allotted to them.
“We’re not asking for anything extra. We’re even ready to give up what was given to us. Just give us flats from the new buildings. Why are we left out?” lamented residents.
For families here, the wait has meant living under daily risk. “Chunks of plaster fell into our bathroom. We cannot even use it without fear,” said a woman, who lives with her child. The 2015 floods worsened the damage, and clogged drains added to the misery.
An official in the department told DT Next that “work on new tenements for Chitra Nagar will begin by December”, but did not explain why the existing flats under construction were not allotted to the VAMBAY families. As the rest of Kotturpuram moves, or prepares to move, into new apartments, these families remain in unsafe homes, still waiting.
