The approach to slum free cities included slum redevelopment through mass slum clearances, demolition of poor quality houses and provision of newer improved buildings. This expensive and tedious process involved relocation of slum dwellers to the fringes. Where most people were content with the quality of services, the experts criticized the social implications of the idea. To tackle this, the World Bank proposed two standpoints: one completely refusing the idea of displacement and the other tackling the methodological aspects of easing negative impacts irrespective of overcoming complexities. The weave of World Bank’s strategies in the 1970s with the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board’s (TNSCB) visions, particularly in the housing sector, restructured TNSCB to limit political shadows and the degree of dependence on state capital. With in-situ developments and upgrading in its initial years, the TNSCB in the 90s shifted back to weak trails as a testimony to a struggle oriented action against evictions and as a response to relocation. Dynamics in the occupancy of slums, divisive party politics within slum communities and gentrification of TNSCB tenements tarnished the unity essential for the success of such schemes/initiatives. The case under study in this paper – Vellalore, one of the largest resettlement colonies in the city of Coimbatore is researched to address the archaic traits of resettlement and the presumptive repercussions on the livelihood of those displaced. The colony housing 24 different slums displaced mostly from the center of the city puts forth immediate challenges of the municipal workers (CMC colony) specifically in terms of access to infrastructure, added financial burdens and social implications delimiting to the current transitional period post resettlement.

This case study was developed within the framework of the "Building Inclusive Urban Communities" / BInUCom project (funded under the EU-Erasmus plus program).