The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : World Bank team to study tsunami housing projects

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

World Bank team to study tsunami housing projects

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

CHENNAI: A decision on extending the deadline for reconstruction of around 7,000 Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements, under the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project, is likely to be taken soon with a team of World Bank officials visiting the city next week.

Some of the projects in the city are yet to take off on account of the lack of consensus among residents, who are beneficiaries of the project. The relocation of over 800 families in Nochi Kuppam on the Marina Beach to temporary shelters as part of the reconstruction project began last month.

Families in Nochi Kuppam that had huts as their dwelling units have relocated to the temporary shelters 300 metres away but most of the residents of 534 dilapidated tenements are yet to vacate the house to facilitate the reconstruction. As elections are round the corner, some political parties have started to persuade them to remain in the dilapidated tenements till elections are over in order to get more benefits.

“Just 10 families have moved to the temporary shelters. Most of the 534 families have not vacated yet,” said an official of the TNSCB. The construction of apartments, each at a cost of Rs.5.5 lakh, in the area was scheduled to begin this month. The residents of Dommingkuppam are also waiting for elections to get over to accept the reconstruction of tenements. Over 7,000 tenements were proposed to be constructed in Chennai under the project. The World Bank team would visit the TNSCB tenements and assess the condition for the multilateral institution to take a decision on extending the deadline of the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project beyond December 2011.

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