The historical temple town of Sriperumbudur, 35 km west of Chennai, is on the global map for being home to top notch multi-national players like Hyundai, Saint Gobain, Samsung, Dell, Salcomp and Flex.

 

But, all these world-class factories set up with incentives and infrastructure are just a view through rose tinted glasses. The reality is completely different — visitors are greeted with dust storms and traffic snarls on the congested NH road.

It is this stark difference that annoys residents of Sriperumbudur (reserved) constituency which is poor in infrastructure like bad roads, incomplete underground sewage system and most importantly, lack of quality water supply. “While the government is concentrating on the industrial belt, they should also take care of us,” said Kamakshi, a flower vendor near the bus stand.

Sriperumbudur was originally famous for the Adi Kesava Perumal Temple where Ramanuja, a Vaishnavite saint and philosopher, was born. The town also had its black mark due to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi here on May 21, 1991. But, it was the setting up of the Hyundai car factory followed by Nokia mobile factory (closed now) in 2006 and others like Motorola and Dell that made Sriperumbudur a major manufacturing hub, and this continues even today.

Unkept promises

“For the last 15 years, nothing has changed for us in the town despite the presence of global companies outside the town,” says ‘Pathukadai’ Raghavan, who runs a small eatery adjacent to the temple. During every election, the candidates give all the promises to improve the infrastructure but they remain unfulfilled.

Inside the town, pollution is heavy and traffic congestion worse. The contractor of the underground sewage system left the project incomplete, and this is a big problem around the temple. There is no proper bus facility to Chennai, he said.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims visit the temple during the annual festival in April. The government should provide basic facilities such as temporary shelter, drinking water and toilets, says Kanakavalli, a resident.

“For many years, we have been demanding a flyover at the busy junction - Vallakottai Koot Road - near Rajiv Gandhi memorial. This road leads to the industrial town of Oragadam and is always congested due to movement of large trucks,” says Mariappan, a building contractor at Sriperumbudur who travels to Oragadam daily.

Like the last election, this time too, the fight is between sitting MLA K Palani of the AIADMK versus K Selvaperunthagai of the Congress. In 2011, Palani beat him by a margin of 90,285 votes. The seat is considered to be a safe bet for the AIADMK which won in 2011 and 2016. This time, too, the party is confident of winning in the constituency that has a total of 3.57 lakh voters.

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