THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Taking the residents’ concerns into account, the Corporation is all set to roll out a revised draft Masterplan 2031 for city development. In the first step, the National Remote Sensing
Centre has submitted the satellite map of the new masterplan to the Corporation’s Town Planning Department.
The corporation is set to begin implementation of the master plan after the completion of ongoing Killiyar Mission and Aksharasree project. The modified plan seeks to reduce the concerns raised by residents of several wards in the city’s periphery. While revising the previous controversial draft, the corporation has decided to include survey numbers to ensure transparency.
The masterplan rolls out a long-term perspective plan for guiding the future developments of the city. Based on the plan the corporation will provide permits for building constructions. The earlier draft plan had led to strong protests for many weeks in Kattayikkonam, Attipra and other wards. The action councils here had alleged that the master plan was aimed at helping the land mafia at the cost of the common people.
The corporation plans to include the suggestions from the citizens and also experts related to the fields before going for modification. It will conduct a survey in all wards to know the problems faced by the citizens regarding building constructions and about their views regarding the future plan of their city, said a corporation official.
The masterplan that comes under AMRUT scheme, aims to create a survey sketch that needs to be digitised and superimposed on satellite images. It’s in this backdrop that the corporation forwarded the draft to the remote sensing department for creating a satellite map.
In February 2014, the draft master plan was withdrawn following widespread complaints. One of the key changes in the new plan pertains to doing away with marking of certain areas as ‘strategic zones’ where no constructions would be permitted. Large portions of land near Technopark, ISRO and other institutions were marked as strategic zones, leading to rejection of building permit applications by residents. These led to widespread protests following which the corporation decided to revise the masterplan.
AMRUT Funds
AMRUT guidelines mandate to have Geographical Information System in the master plan. “AMRUT is responsible for providing funds for the masterplan. An amount of Rs 50 lakh has been transferred to the Town Planning Department. The decision to include GIS in the maste plan was taken up by the Ministry of Urban Development,” said an AMRUT official.