CHENNAI: As part of the plan to make Chennai and other other urban centres in the State free of slums, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has proposed an ambitious initial phase project to construct 10,000 tenements at a cost of Rs 825 crores, with funding from Union and State governments.
The proposal was put forth as part of the development blueprint, Vision 2023, announced by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last year. Under this, the proposal is to construct 7.75 lakh houses with a massive investment of Rs 65,000 crore. For the first phase of 10,000 tenements, the TNSCB is planning in-situ construction of individual houses as well as storied apartments for rehabilitation of people living in slums.
But the progress has not been easy. The board was planning to raise funds from the Centre and the State under various programmes. However, the finance department asked it to mobilise part of the required funds on its own. Following this, the TNSCB has now reworked the proposed funding, agreeing to raise Rs 123.75 crore through the sale of slum Transfer of Developmental Rights, which received the green light from the CMDA recently.
Meanwhile, sources said the managing director of Slum Clearance Board sought the release of Rs 371.25 crore to construct 5,000 tenements, without insisting on revenue generation through sale of TDR certificates by TNSCB immediately. But this has been rejected by the finance department.
The finance department has now asked the housing department to formulate procedures and generate resources from sale of TDR certificates from the initial stage itself so as the generate the required funds for starting the project. But it is easier said that done. The biggest issue with slum TDRs is its valuation. “How would a financial institution take it as a guarantee when the land itself has been encroached,” said a source.
Unlike the ordinary TDR, the slum TDRs will not give the slum dweller the right to shift the development rights of that land to any other property.
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