What’s Next for Greater Chennai Corporation in 2025?

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I am delighted to present the next piece by G Ananthakrishnan, a senior journalist formerly with The Hindu and Indian Express. Happy reading! 

What’s Next for Greater Chennai Corporation in 2025?

What should the mission of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), with its larger footprint now in the IT corridor and some Western suburbs, be in 2025? But where is the money for big programmes, one may ask?

All over the world, cities do the heavy lifting for the economy of State or Provinces. Chennai stands sixth among major Indian cities ($66 billion: Statista) in terms of its contribution to its state’s economic output. Ahmedabad ranks higher at $68 billion, while Hyderabad ($74 billion), Bengaluru ($83 billion), and Delhi ($167 billion) and the national financial capital Mumbai touch $368 billion. In 2024, GCC launched a drive to collect more funds through property tax. The current property tax demand is ₹1,800 crore according to a report in The Hindu, while fresh revisions were expected to add ₹100 crore. A similar hike in Profession Tax for salaried individuals by 35% has been announced. In 2024-25, the civic body estimated profession tax collection at ₹550 crore.

Besides, there are other avenues for fund-raising — the newly-introduced policy on outdoor hoardings will tax advertisement displays including commercial digital screens. Incidentally, Chennai made headlines earlier, joining a select list of cities around the world — Sao Paulo, Tehran, Grenoble and Paris that banned advertisement hoardings. These are set to come back in Chennai.

Here’s What Chennai Can Do

Hit the Road with Repairs: Chennai can do a lot more to make its roads smoother, particularly in areas where CMRL is pursuing Phase 2 Metro work. Moisture and road cuts are a deadly combination and city roads collapse after each monsoon. This is partly because Chennai does not do timely repairs. Road relaying was given ₹390 crore during the current year in the GCC budget, while bus route roads got ₹149 crore, and Urban Road Improvement Works ₹327 crore.

Another Vital Issue to Focus On: The Supreme Court of India laid down in November 2024 that there should be mandatory accessibility standards at public facilities for people with disabilities. This means smooth, wheelchair-accessible footpaths, ramps in buildings, low-floor buses, and so on. Pursuing this court order will compel the States and GCC to reform the city.

Create Neighbourhood Lakes & Ponds: The 2024 monsoon tells us that many of Chennai’s ground-floor dwellings are now risky. What if the water can flow into neighbourhood lakes, ponds or percolation structures? No one is happy that rain flows are carried away by drains when they can keep groundwater levels high. Certainly not when you consider that ₹1,321 crore was allocated during the year to build drains, upgrade the Kosasthalaiyar basin and for Singara Chennai 2.0.

Get Serious About Previous Concrete: Why is previous concrete (which is pervious concrete (that allows water to percolate down slowly) not on the map? As the visuals below demonstrate, this mainstream technology is on display at the famed Smithsonian Natural History Museum as a sustainability initiative. The previous AIADMK government said in 2021 that it would create pervious pavements in Chennai. Can GCC follow through in 2025?

Freedom to Walk and Bike: The Tamil Nadu State Transport Authority says 504 people died in road accidents in Chennai during 2023, and the fatalities among pedestrians were 187 (2022 data). Quite simply, Chennai is not a city for walkers.

Accident fatalities may be down in the city, but as IIT Delhi’s transportation safety research department says, these may be an underestimate because injuries and deaths are not fully documented in India. We need to do more on this.

GCC has another chance in 2025 to fuel up its Non-Motorised Transport policy. This means giving the responsibility of fixing all pavements in Chennai to minimum standards — providing a smooth walking surface, guardrails in vulnerable sections, a minimum walking width of 1.5 metres, and designated spaces for vendors near but not on walking paths. The civic body also needs to consider whether it is serious about bicycles since all investments made each year ensure a smooth flow of cars and two-wheelers.

Can Chennai Be a Singapore?

Chennai is well behind global cities such as Singapore on mobility — market data say the island state raises maximum revenue from ride-hailing and is witnessing the fastest growth rates in bike sharing.

Singapore, transport planners are pursuing a 20-minute neighbourhood goal (time to perform everyday work) and a 45-minute city by 2040 — that is, no trip will take longer than 45 minutes, including by public transport. Also, Singapore charges cars heavily for the privilege of using the roads and parking. Many developed cities do. New York’s Manhattan borough started the New Year with a congestion charge.

GCC should follow suit and raise funds through good parking management on all public roads. The most popular thing the city can do (as with free women’s bus travel) is to make walking, cycling and all buses better.

Make Local Democracy Work: This is a critical part. Elected Chennai Corporation Council members are often disconnected from voters, resulting in a lack of strong initiatives for local development. Area Sabhas are supposed to meet periodically. GCC needs to ensure they do and give wide publicity through local and online notices.

What Can You Do as a Citizen?

1. If you have specific civic grievances such as bad roads, dark streetlights, uncleared garbage, mosquito menace, etc., download the Namma Chennai app and file online. These are automatically recorded and usually get a response.

2. Write to your Councillor or speak to them: Their contact details are at this web address. https://chennaicorporation.gov.in/gcc/council/council-address/

3. Use the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) to ask about local information, budgets, actions taken on public problems etc. A primer on how to use the law is here: https://www.moneylife.in/rticentre/basics.html

4. For serious, unaddressed issues, consider forming a local litigation group that will pool resources and information, to take up civic issues in the courts. At the end of the year, file Right to Information petitions on action taken on GCC announcements, taking care to cite specific projects.

Dive Deeper

1. Read this article by The Hindu. You can also watch this short reel in Tamil on how to use the card.

1. Watch this documentary: How Indian Cities Failed Public Transport

1. Read: How do road contractors cheat the TN government in construction of poor roads?

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