TN to build 1,777 tenements worth Rs 134.36 crore in Chennai, Trichy

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board will be constructing 1,777 tenements at a cost of Rs 134.36 crore in Athipattu in Chennai and karikalan Colony in Trichy under the initial phase of Rajiv Awas Yojana’s Slum Free Cities prgramme this year.

The tenements are part of the ambitious scheme of building one lakh tenements at a cost of Rs 7,500 crore from 2012-13 to 2016-17. Sources told Express that the 1,777 tenements will be built in two phases in Athipattu.

In the initial phase, 1,056 tenements will be built at a cost of Rs 84.92 crore in Athipatu and in the second phase 416 tenements will be built at a cost of Rs 32.33 crore. Similarly, in Trichy’s Karikalan Colony, 305 tenements worth Rs 17.21 crore will be built.

The scheme will be adopted with Union government contributing 50 per cent of the funds, state government 40 per cent of the funds and beneficiaries contributing 10 per cent.

Currently, the socio-economic survey of the slums in 10 towns namely Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Vellore, Coimbatore, Thirunelveli, Erode, Tirupur and Thoothkudi are in progress and will be completed soon.

Once the survey is completed, a slum free city action plan for each city will be prepared and sent to union government. After getting the sanction from the Union government, the programme to construct one lakh tenements in the urban areas will be commenced.

According to state government estimates about 13.96 lakh families (59 lakh persons) are living in the urban slums in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, a report of Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation estimates the slum population in Tamil Nadu at 86.44 lakh in 2011.

The preparation of slum-free city Plan will broadly involve slum redevelopment or rehabilitation plans based on survey of all slums – notified and non-notified, mapping of slums using the state-of-art technology, integration of geo-spatial and socio-economic data and identification of development model proposed for each slum, according to Rajiv Awas Yojana Guidelines for Slum-free City Planning.

Interestingly, the after the AIADMK government came to power, TNSCB has completed construction of 22,700 tenements and spent Rs 540 crore on its capital programmes. Sale deeds are issued to 4,404 families and employment oriented training is imparted for 8,345 persons.

Interestingly, the state government is planning to provide Rs 15 crore from state grants to improve basic amenities like roads, street lights, drinking water facilities for slum families this year in various towns of Tamil Nadu to improve the living conditions of urban slums and make them habitable.