MYSORE: The city projected to register rapid growth, woke up to the harsh reality of its brittle infrastructure on the verge of a collapse following heavy rain in the early hours of Wednesday.

The death of three persons, who were washed away in the gushing waters, also exposed the sordid living conditions in the slums of Mysore.

But the fragility of the creaking infrastructure has not gone unnoticed and plans are afoot to make Mysore "slum-free" with funding under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The City Development Plan (CDP) submitted for JNNURM admits that during heavy rain, water accumulates along the roads and this needs to be diverted into storm water drain on either side of the road. These branch drains are to be connected to a main storm drain of larger dimension to facilitate smooth flow of water.

The CDP's thrust on slum improvement assures to take a holistic approach to the problem by linking low-income housing development to income generation and ensuring easy access to jobs through pro-poor transport and low-income settlement location policies.

The policy of slum improvement as enunciated in the CDP emphasises on providing good shelter to slum dwellers at affordable costs. It also plans to rope in the services of non-governmental organisations as in Kuduremala where RLHP's involvement has resulted in people organising themselves and creation of four women's self-help groups. The Centre has approved a Rs. 45-crore project under JNNURM to improve 20 slums in Mysore in the first phase. There are plans to rehabilitate 4,500 families from various slums of Mysore who will get better amenities. But unless the plans are implemented within a timeframe, tragedies such as the one that claimed three lives on Tuesday will continue to recur.

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