Housing for All' scheme to benefit 191 towns in phase I

Chennai: The Housing for All programme aiming to meet the challenges of housing needs of increasing urban population besides rising population in slums, will be implemented in 191 towns in Tamil Nadu in phase I at a cost of Rs 510.20 crore.

The Centre has approved the phase I implementation of the programme and the state-level sanctioning and monitoring committee for this programme has been constituted under the chairmanship of chief secretary to approve the projects at state level.

As 48.45 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population lives in urban areas vis-à-vis the national average of 31 per cent and urban population density is 3,521 persons per sq. km, the scenario poses both challenges as well as opportunities. While the urban population in TN has grown by 27 per cent between 2001-11, the slum population has risen from 28.38 lakh to about 59 lakh i.e. a growth of 105 per cent.

The rapid urbanisation being witnessed by the state reflects the economic growth achieved by the state and at the same time the challenge of creating sustainable urban infrastructure and need to cater to the growing housing needs in the urban areas. Hence, the government under Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has come out with the Housing for All programme to make TN slum free by 2023.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has provided a financial grant of Rs 389.42 crore to Chennai Metro Rail Ltd for developing area in front of Chennai Central railway station as an iconic location for the city and as hub of integrated multi-nodal transport system.

The CMDA has also developed an industrial layout at Chithamanur, Maraimalai Nagar consisting of 30 industrial plots over an extent of 32.26 acres of land at a cost of Rs 14 crore, according to a policy note on housing and urban development department tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday by housing and urban development minister Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan.

The TNHB has developed 14,063 new residential units for Rs1,162.68 crore from 2011-12 and 2015-16 and presently works are on to construct 24,079 residential units at a cost of Rs 3,808.78 crore.

Govt e-services to be ensured during calamity

Drawing a lesson from the December 2015 massive deluge, the state government has planned to work out a mechanism to ensure uninterrupted government services to the people. It has proposed to establish a Disaster Recovery Centre at Tiruchy to provide seamless e-services to the people during calamitous situation.

The Elcot has been nominated as the implementing agency for setting up of the DRC in a phased manner. The Tamil Nadu State Data Centre (TNSDC), core e-governance backbone infrastructure, enables the state government and its departments to host their applications and services on a common, redundant, secured and controlled environment, easing the process of integration and resource optimisation.

But risks pertaining to natural disasters like tsunami, earthquakes and floods pose a Herculean challenge to any data centre. So, to ensure the business continuity of the departments which provide e-services and to have a mirror image of data, DRC has been planned at Tiruchy.

Sify technologies has been appointed as the DRC operator for supply, installation, configuration, testing, operations and management of DRC at ELCOSEZ at a cost of Rs 53.28 crore and the work is in progress, according to a policy note on information technology tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday by Dr M. Manikandan, IT minister.