The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : CMDA submits second Master Plan draft

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 22, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

CMDA submits second Master Plan draft

Sandhya Soman

Government nod is expected in a month

CHENNAI : Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has sent a revised version of the second Master Plan draft for Chennai back to the State Government for clearance. The Government nod is expected in a month.

A multi-pronged public consultation process would start, once the document was approved, said vice-chairman R. Santhanam. "We will upload the Master Plan on the CMDA website. Hard copies will also be made available," he said. In addition, there will be "simplified" versions of the voluminous Master Plan.

Mr. Santhanam referred to a position paper that has been prepared by the Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group highlighting the difficulty in comprehending the draft plan owing to its size and a plethora of data. The simplified version would have more pictorial details. It would help the people understand the plan better and make suggestions in next three months, he said.

A series of meetings with all stake-holders are planned at zonal-level. "There will be power-point presentations at the meetings. We will also invite civil society groups, architects and builders to deliberate on the plan," said Mr. Santhanam.

All suggestions would be taken into consideration and changes in the plan would be made, if necessary, he said, adding that the public consultation process would give another opportunity to local bodies to express their opinions and make suggestions.

The long-pending Master Plan was sent back to the CMDA by the Government early this year, asking the Authority to revise it by incorporating the latest developments and growth patterns in the city. Though the CMDA sought suggestions from all local bodies including the Corporation, very few responded.

According to M. G. Devasahayam, managing trustee of Citizens Alliance for Sustainable Living, CMDA should have started the consultation process long ago.

"They should have had extensive discussions with a cross-section of people to understand their needs and problems in the initial stage itself. The CMDA could have, at least, consulted civil society representatives when the government sent the plan back to it for revision. The three-month period is not sufficient to make any substantial changes," he said.

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