Chennai Corporation - Fragmentation

Fragmentation

Until October 2011, suburban Chennai was fragmented into number of small local bodies of municipalities and town panchayats; the area under the corporation limits, that is, Chennai city area was only 174 km2. The fragmented and small local bodies lacked adequate funds to carry out development work. Meanwhile, with the IT boom in Chennai, the population of these areas, especially near the IT Corridor, continued to increase. Flats and posh apartments sprung up on roads that were slushy and full of potholes because the roads, drainage, sewage and other infrastructure hardly matched urban standards.

In contrast, other southern cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad had already merged suburbs with the city as early as 2007. Bangalore's Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Hyderabad's Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation brought as much as 800 and 650 km2 of area under city limits in 2007. However, Chennai Corporation continued to not include the suburbs for development.