Women not safe at Ambattur estate

[1]

The safety and security of women who work at the Ambattur industrial estates has become a matter of concern, as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) failed to erect lampposts on the 3rd Main Road.

Even two years after the opening of the three-km elevated stretch of the Chennai bypass road, streetlights are yet to be installed on the road.

The NHAI was supposed to construct the storm water drain and erect streetlights on the 3rd Main Road, which runs parallel to the elevated road in the estate.

“It is a risk travelling in the dark on the 3rd Main Road,” said R. Saranya who works in an industrial unit. To ensure safety, Saranya said, she and her colleagues travel in group from her office at the 1st Cross Street to the bus stop at Telephone Exchange in the evening.

According to CITU Ambattur Industrial Estate president Su. Lenin Sundar, at least 7,000 to 8,000 women are employed in the industrial units, ITES and BPOs located close to the 3rd Main Road.

“If the NHAI fails to erect streetlights, the Chennai Auto Ancillary Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Company (CAAIIUC), which maintains the estate, should take steps to install it immediately by getting sponsorship from the companies,” he said, adding that the company should also take steps to revive operation of the north-south round trip bus service to help women workers to reach their office located in the interior parts of the estate.

Meanwhile, CAAIIUC director V. Raju said that he had written several letters to the NHAI asking them to install streetlights but his attempts proved futile.

“We have erected 60 streetlights on the 3rd Main Road at a cost of `8 lakh on our own,” he said, adding that it would be functional soon.