In this month alone, two apartments under construction at Ammankulam had sunk into the ground. While one block sank 40cm into the earth on April 3, the other went in one feet on April 18. It may be recalled that the apartments with 960 tenements were being constructed by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board at Ammankulam to relocate families settled on water bodies in the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

While the expert committee, which had taken the soil for testing to find the cause for the sinking of the apartments on April 4, was yet to release the full report, another incident happened on Sunday causing fears over the safety of the other blocks under construction at the same site.

P.Rajkumar, leader of AIADMK councillors in the Coimbatore Corporation Council, MDMK councillor N Thangavel, CPI councillor K Purusothaman and BJP councillor TR Gomathirajan participated in the protest demonstration.

Rajkumar said that the Ammankulam site was rejected during the AIADMK regime. He said that even the public and councillors had opposed the DMK government move to construct multi-storey apartments at this site as it was part of a tank which had dried up a long ago.

He said the Corporation and the slum board ignored the public and councillors’ views and went ahead with the construction work. Hence, there was a need to conduct a CBI probe on why an unsuitable and rejected site was selected for construction, he added.