B.       DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS

Findings

Only King Street is asphalted, with a poor and narrow asphalt cover. All other roads in Old Tranquebar are unsurfaced. During the rainy season the unsurfaced roads become a quagmire of garbage mixed mud. Garbage collection is erratic, due to a scarcity of District employed garbage collectors. Also no tools are provided for garbage collection – waste has to be gathered by hand.

The Danish Tranquebar association has placed cement pipe garbage bins in parts of Tranquebar, totally unsuited for their purpose. Recently the Panchayat, at their own expense, acquired 50 light plastic roller-garbage bins, which can be emptied by lifting and tilting. These bins are a significant improvement even without equipment for lifting and tilting. Other garbage bin designs are in use in Pondicherry and Poompuhar. Pondicherry bins being be emptied from below, while bins in Poompuhar are fastened to iron poles with a cross-bar, and can easily be tilted.

The Danish Bestseller Foundation has taken responsibility for the cleaning of streets close to the Parade Ground, hiring women through a subcontractor. As the women are only paid a minimal rate, have no job security, and loose status by taking a lowly job, motivation is minimal. In fact “cleaning” mainly amounts to the removal of vegetation (often quite beautiful flowering plants), thus limiting moisture absorption by plant cover and accentuating the flooding of streets and Parade Ground.

The Tranquebar Village Panchayat has proposed that King Street (Raja Veethi) should be transformed into a cement concrete road with drainage, the construction costs estimated at 1,500,000 Rs. Such a development would be quite disruptive by encouraging fast vehicular traffic in an area frequented by school children, church goers and tourist visitors, as well as creating a contrast to the churches and other historical buildings.

Most roads have kept their old names, even if named only in Tamil and English. However only a few road signs remain.