Chennai Metropolitan Area expansion proposal riddled with unanswered questions
CHENNAI: Will the proposed expansion of the city metropolitan area lead to a loss of vast tracks of agricultural lands? This was one of the main concerns raised by civic activists at the public ‘workshop’ on the proposed expansion of the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) held at the Ripon Buildings on Monday.
Civic activists alleged that the panel headed by Rajesh Lakhoni, member secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), was not able to “convincingly justify” the proposal to expand the CMA from 1,189 sq km to 8,878 sq km, which will make it the largest metropolitan area in the country.
Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts, along with Arakkonam taluk of Vellore district, are to become a part of the expanded area. Questions from the public on the rationale behind including agricultural districts of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur in the CMA received vague answers such as “better usage of land”. “The officials said the expansion was not about urbanisation, but about better land use. However, plans on how to use the land better were not laid out during the discussion,” Kanchan Asrani, a member of the Arappor Iyakkam, told Express.
Jayaram Vekatesan, convener of Arappor Iyakkam, asked whether the CMDA was under pressure to push the expansion. “Kancheepuram district is a major rice producer. Is it smart to turn it into a metropolitan area?” he said, hinting that expansion was a move to appease real estate honchos.
What was it?
R Prashanth Goutham, a resident of Kotturpuram, who was also present at the ‘workshop’ questioned what the meeting set out to achieve. “It was first called a workshop and then during the meeting it was referred to as a consultative session, based on which a decision would be taken,” he said, calling for clarity in the purpose of meetings in the coming days.