CHENNAI: More than 2,990 families, who were facing eviction from Defence ministry land at Indira Nagar in Vepery, may heave a sigh of relief as the State slum clearance board has moved a proposal for in situ slum development.
Staying in the slums for more than 30 to 40 years, the slum dwellers were facing the threat of eviction and being moved to Perumbakam, 30km away from where they are living now.
The move to develop Indira Nagar slum near Quadi-E-Milleth Bridge along Cooum River behind Government Hospital into a liveable housing with infrastructure to all slum families comes after the Union government announced the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) envisaging the provision of houses for all slum families before 2022.
It is learnt that slum clearance board wanted the land to be spared free of cost by the Ministry of Defence for in situ development.
Working out the cost for building a 400 sqfeet plinth area tenement for slum dwellers with electrical fittings, an official source said it works out to `10 lakh for ground plus three floors or stilt plus four floors development.
The source said for in situ development, if the land is spared by ministry, then Union government has to spend `1.5 lakh and the State `7.50 lakh for building the tenement. The beneficiary will have to spend ` one lakh.
The Slum Clearance Board source told Express that if the Ministry of Defence disagrees, then along with Union government (`1.5 lakh), the defence ministry has to bear the entire cost of `8.5 lakh,” source said.
A source told Express that as per earlier plan 2,990 tenements were identified by the Ministry of Defence to be resettled at Perumbakkam. These include 745 families in Pallavan Nagar and 2,245 families in Gandhi Nagar A, B, C, D and E blocks.
As per earlier plan, the Defence ministry was to bear 10 per cent of beneficiaries contribution for resettling the slum dwellers.
Sources said the cost of a tenement worked out then was `seven lakh. The defence department also was to bear shifting, subsistence and livelihood allowances and skill training cost which is around `90,000. The total cost to resettle a family then was worked out at `1.6 lakh some two to three years ago,” sources added.