The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : City plan to be finalised by year-end: Minister

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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

City plan to be finalised by year-end: Minister

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The State Government will take necessary steps to finalise the second master plan for Chennai by this year-end, Parithi Illamvazhuthi, Minister for Information and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) chairman, has said.

He was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day public consultation on the second draft master plan prepared by CMDA. Noting that the workshop was fruitful, he said three main points emerged during the deliberations — accepting developing industries in the emerging areas of the Chennai city, importance of not violating the Development Control Rules (DCR) and adopting the best practices in other States for the progress of projects in Chennai.

On the issue of violations, he said the State Government would not support unauthorised violations.

CMDA vice-chairman R. Santhanam read out the recommendations of the workshop. He said the population was expected to stabilise by 2026 and the infrastructure for the estimated population needed to built.

There was a need for increased income and employment generating activities for sustainable development. There was discussion on lopsided employment opportunities. There was a need for self-contained townships and satellite towns and to address real estate issues.

Many speakers laid stress on the concept of green buildings, he said, pointing out that there was support for urbanisation of two and three tier cities. There were suggestions to allow vertical development without compromising on the density. There was a need to provide employment and skill training in cluster development areas.

Comprehensive study

Speakers underscored the need for a comprehensive economic study.

“The contribution of fishermen to society has been left out in the draft and will be included in the Master Plan,” he said.

With 70 per cent of the population was employed in the informal sector, poverty alleviation programmes and slum improvement projects would be taken up.

The city would focus on an inclusive development and the fact that market forces decided the location of informal sector business should be recognised, he said.

On water supply, the need to cater to the increasing demand would be met by recycling waste water for purposes other than drinking he said.

The success story of Alandur Municipality’s underground drainage scheme would be replicated in other areas. Conservation of water should be given priority, Mr. Santhanam said.

In the area of public transport, the public transport – personal transport ratio of 70-30 would be the ideal to achieve; towards this the bus fleet had to be increased from 2,800 to at 9,000 buses, provide mini bus shuttles between the bus and railway stations, omnibus permits to complement the city’s bus services, designate exclusive pedestrian areas, stagger school timings, give priority to high occupancy vehicles, adopt advanced technology for transport and go in for a unified metro transport authority.

The CMDA would continue to accept suggestions from the public on the draft second master plan, he said.

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