C ShivakumarChennai:
Five years have passed and a big question mark remains over whether the Second Master Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area would be reviewed during the ensuing authority meeting or would it be postponed as the committees appointed to monitor and review Second Master Plan have failed to meet every three months as per the norms.
CMDA sources told Express the review of the second master plan, wich is stipulated to take place every five years, would be discussed during the ensuing authority meeting but question mark remains whether it will be taken up as the committees have failed to meet regularly.
As per the Second Master Plan six committees were formed. They include Committee on Economy & Employment, Committee on Shelter, Committee on Infrastructure, Committee on Investment, Committee on Land Use and Environment and Committee on Traffic and Transport. The prime duty of the committees is to advise about the actions to be taken to achieve the objectives of the Second Master Plan. But with officials failing to conduct regular meetings, it just makes the Second Master Plan look good only on paper, said CMDA sources.
As per norms, the committee should meet at least once in three months and by now each committee should have conducted 20 meetings and the actions taken by the committee should be reported to the CMDA Authority in the months of March and August every year, said CMDA sources. Surprisingly, it is learnt that each committee met only two or three times. This has come in for strong criticism by planners and civil society who feel any lack of monitoring or review by the appointed committees makes it redundant
“There must be some accountability among the officials. The Masterplan was prepared after fair amount of consultation. New ideas were given. But now it is a dead document due to failure of the authorities even to hold consultative meetings, said M G Deivasahayam, Managing Trustee of the Chennai-based Citizens Alliance for Sustainable Living (SUSTAIN).
Interestingly, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has yet to complete the detailed development plans (DDP) of peri-urban areas. The delay in the preparation of detailed development plans for Velachery, Ambattur, Nazarethpet and Perumbakam, with the objective of providing land uses as well as improvement of infrastructure in these areas, has been a cause of concern for town planners. Sources said that the detailed development plan for Villivakam has only been completed.
Sources said the Second Master Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area came into being on September 2, 2008 after which CMDA initiated action to prepare DDPs for areas in CMA in a phased manner but surprisingly, only one DDP has been prepared in the last five years. “With masterplan barely being implemented, the planning in the city is highly questionable,” says Deivasahayam.
When Chief planner of Masterplan S Chitra was contacted by Express, she refused to talk to the media. Other top officials were unavailable for comment.
Five years have passed and a big question mark remains over whether the Second Master Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area would be reviewed during the ensuing authority meeting or would it be postponed as the committees appointed to monitor and review Second Master Plan have failed to meet every three months as per the norms.
CMDA sources told Express the review of the second master plan, wich is stipulated to take place every five years, would be discussed during the ensuing authority meeting but question mark remains whether it will be taken up as the committees have failed to meet regularly.
As per the Second Master Plan six committees were formed. They include Committee on Economy & Employment, Committee on Shelter, Committee on Infrastructure, Committee on Investment, Committee on Land Use and Environment and Committee on Traffic and Transport. The prime duty of the committees is to advise about the actions to be taken to achieve the objectives of the Second Master Plan. But with officials failing to conduct regular meetings, it just makes the Second Master Plan look good only on paper, said CMDA sources.
As per norms, the committee should meet at least once in three months and by now each committee should have conducted 20 meetings and the actions taken by the committee should be reported to the CMDA Authority in the months of March and August every year, said CMDA sources. Surprisingly, it is learnt that each committee met only two or three times. This has come in for strong criticism by planners and civil society who feel any lack of monitoring or review by the appointed committees makes it redundant
“There must be some accountability among the officials. The Masterplan was prepared after fair amount of consultation. New ideas were given. But now it is a dead document due to failure of the authorities even to hold consultative meetings, said M G Deivasahayam, Managing Trustee of the Chennai-based Citizens Alliance for Sustainable Living (SUSTAIN).
Interestingly, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has yet to complete the detailed development plans (DDP) of peri-urban areas. The delay in the preparation of detailed development plans for Velachery, Ambattur, Nazarethpet and Perumbakam, with the objective of providing land uses as well as improvement of infrastructure in these areas, has been a cause of concern for town planners. Sources said that the detailed development plan for Villivakam has only been completed.
Sources said the Second Master Plan for Chennai Metropolitan Area came into being on September 2, 2008 after which CMDA initiated action to prepare DDPs for areas in CMA in a phased manner but surprisingly, only one DDP has been prepared in the last five years. “With masterplan barely being implemented, the planning in the city is highly questionable,” says Deivasahayam.
When Chief planner of Masterplan S Chitra was contacted by Express, she refused to talk to the media. Other top officials were unavailable for comment.
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