Thursday, June 2, 2016

TN yet to prepare mater plans for 32 Amrut cities

C Shivakumar
Chennai:
The master plan for 32 cities in Tamil Nadu, which have been selected under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), is yet to be prepared due to lack of staff in Directorate of Town and Country Planning department.
 
As per norms, Centre has asked states to create GIS based land use master plan for all Amrut cities. The 32 cities are part of 500 cities, which the Centre wants to rejuvenate under 10-year programme with an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore.
 
But the lack of staff in DTCP, the failure to rope in underutilised staff in CMDA and the elections has delayed the preparation of master-plan.
 
It is learnt that of the 801 posts in DTCP, 344 are still vacant. Some of the posts which are yet to be filled include include top four layers starting from additional director to deputy director administration.
 
Sources said that there was a plan during then housing secretary Surjit Chaudary’s tenure to transfer excess staff in CMDA to DTCP on a rotation basis. However, the plan could not fructify. Currently, CMDA has excess staff like in Area Development Unit or Metro rail who are under-utilised. They could be utilised to prepare the master plans of Amrut cities.
 
It is learnt from the Union Ministry of Urban Development that of the 7,935 towns in India, there are only about 2,700 cities that have a statutory land use master plan in existence resulting in unplanned and haphazard development.
 
A letter from the Union government has asked the state to utilise the administrative fund to procure urban planners on contractual basis. However, sources said that instead of outsourcing the job, it would be better to use the service of CMDA staff who have been under-utilised.

List of 32 AMRUT cities:

Name of cities                   Population

1. Chennai     86,96,010

2. Coimbatore   21,51,466

3. Madurai                      14.62 lakh

4. Tiruchirappalli                 10.21 lakh

5. Tiruppur                      9.62 lakh

6. Salem                        9.19 lakh

7. Erode                        5.21 lakh

8. Tirunelveli                    4.98 lakh

9. Vellore                       4.81 lakh

10. Thoothkudi                  4.10 lakh

11. Dindigul                     2.92 lakh

12. Thanjavur                   2.90 lakh

13. Ranipet                     2.62 lakh

14. Sivakasi                    2.34 lakh

15. Karur                       2.33 lakh

16. Udhagamandalam            2.33 lakh

17. Hosur                       2.29 lakh

18. Nagercoil                    2.24 lakh

19. Kancheepuram              2.21 lakh

20. Kumarapalayam             1.94 lakh

21. Karaikkudi                   1.81 lakh

22. Neyveli                     1.78 lakh

23. Cuddalore                   1.73 lakh

24. Kumbakonam                1.67 lakh

25. Tiruvannamalai               1.44 lakh

26. Pollachi                     1.35 lakh

27. Rajapalayam                 1.30 lakh

28. Guddiyatham                1.24 lakh

29. Puddukottai                 1.17 lakh

30. Vaniyambadi                 1.16 lakh

31. Ambur                    1.13 lakh

32. Nagapatinam               1.02 lakh

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