Life in a burgeoning metro: Chennai chapter

Chennai, like most other metropolises, is a pulsating, living being, a shape shifter as it grows and expands. Residents, who live in the city, and love it too, are not blind to its inconveniences. As the city gears itself up for another master plan or Singara Chennai 2.0, a look at how this city grew, and continues to grow

Most cities are well-loved by their residents though they might contain certain flaws. Chennai, a city that is over 380 years old, is a place even visitors are unlikely to forget; many return to experience its culture. Nothing beats a city with a beach, even if your feet on the beach sand turn up plastic wrappers and shards of glass every few feet.

But are the spirit, culture, and beach reasons enough to put up with the quality of life in Chennai today? It is well established that the city isn’t pedestrian-friendly, and has infrastructure that pales in comparison with other metros. With open unfinished drains, uneven roads, and unused cables galore, fears of flooding every monsoon, the city and its infrastructure seem to be cracking under the weight of expansion and population growth. For the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Greater Chennai Corporation, which are seized with the task of building a city for the future, it is a challenge to develop master plans that will ensure equitable distribution of resources and evenly planned growth.

Today, Chennai is spread over 426 square kilometres; but in the 1970s, the city was smaller — just over 120 square kilometres — and quieter. Slowly, change, a pseudonym for development, crept in; in the 1980s, independent houses were replaced with apartments, and by the 1990s, office complexes dotted Chennai’s landscape and cars frequented the roads.

The city is ever-expanding, much like an octopus stretching its tentacles, and will it continue to feel like the comfortable place millions call home? That remains to be seen.

Slowly, families look to move to the outskirts where the idea of space and affordable luxury seem enticing enough to leave a happening core city. Private developers take advantage of this trend. Newer building projects are coming up in the expanded area. The city has always been surrounded by well-entrenched suburbs on its peripheries, particularly in the south and west, but has the development been equitable in these areas?

Every city is destined to grow in terms of its population and area, and Chennai is no exception. Development is an inevitable process, but has development in Chennai rendered it a haphazard sprawl that urban planners are struggling to regulate? Chennai, being a coastal city, has grown in a semi-circular form with the business district at its centre. Growth is noticeable in the south and western suburbs, but more noticeable along the Grand Southern Trunk Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road that hosts a burgeoning information technology sector. In the north, where industries have taken root, people complain of neglect by the civic body and the government.

In October 2022, the Tamil Nadu government issued an order notifying the expansion of the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA), from 1,189 square kilometre to 5,904 square kilometres, to include the contiguous areas of Thiruvallur, Ranipet, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts. According to an official of the CMDA, several factors necessitated the increase of the CMA, the chief among them being the growing population, the lack of affordable housing within the city and the unplanned development in the suburbs. “Economical development needs more land area; hence, the expansion of the metropolitan area would aid it,” the official says. The CMDA hopes this expansion will contribute to a more balanced and well-planned growth of the region and its Third Master Plan (2026-2046) will lay down the guidelines. But will the current CMA improve land use and the quality of life, asks A. Srivathsan, an expert in urban planning.