‘Systems set up at OMR in 2025 go into 2026 and beyond’

OLD MAHABALIPURAM ROAD, CHENNAI-CHENGALPATTU: If you unrecorded on OMR, you mightiness spot 2025 arsenic the twelvemonth residents softly acceptable up the systems that are going to marque 2026 and beyond precise antithetic connected this broadside of the city.

To get inked

Voter IDs first. FOMRRA and Karmayogam Trust spent the twelvemonth untangling the large SIR messiness truthful thousands of voters did not vanish from the rolls conscionable due to the fact that idiosyncratic mangled an code field. That RWA-by-RWA clean-up present becomes our lasting playbook earlier each election, conscionable successful clip for the OMR Citizens’ Mandate we are taking to governmental parties successful aboriginal 2026.

Everyday hacks

Our autobus audit was classical OMR: sweaty residents, dusty autobus stops, superior data. When we realised lone a tiny portion of MTC routes touched OMR and workers were bleeding wealth connected stock autos, we did not nonstop a rant; we sent a way map, and that is what helped bring successful mini-buses and the airport-Siruseri service. The mid-year tanker situation was different “fix the codification ourselves” moment, wherever RWAs helped police, Metrowater and backstage tankers hold connected transportation windows that tin present beryllium reused successful each aboriginal h2o scare.

Lake watch

Eco-Watch turned residents into lake-side QA engineers, catching embankments that really blocked h2o alternatively of redeeming it and pushing section civic bodies to determination “on paper” restoration into existent work, with much audits and reports queued up for 2026. On the roads, the aforesaid stubborn follow-up that got high-intensity LEDs connected completed stretches is present being aimed astatine clearing debris and making definite work lanes are thing you tin locomotion connected without risking your life.

Books and business

Not everything was complaints and committees. Bookworms kept thousands of books moving done swaps and meet-ups, portion Music & Lyrics and “Radio OMR” made definite the corridor inactive had a soundtrack, not conscionable honking and drilling. Behind the scenes, the FMS Vendor Survey and LEAP web started pooling RWA contented and section concern vigor truthful that 2026 committees are negotiating from data, not from guesswork.

(Harsha Koda who wrote this nonfiction for the IT Corridor variation of The Hindu Downtown is the co-founder of Federation of OMR Residents Association Residents Association that represents residents’ aspirations on Chennai’s IT Corrdior)