CHENNAI: Sixty families living in Neduvankarai Pillayar Koil Street were relocated to the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development (TNUHDB) tenements in NVN Nagar in Thirumangalam, two km away from their original residence.
Forty families moved on Wednesday and the rest will be relocated on Thursday. The resettlement is carried out as part of the Integrated Cooum River Eco-Restoration Project of the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT).
The families were originally allotted this land under the Madras Urban Development Plan (MUDP) slum improvement scheme. Their MUDP allotments have now been cancelled and they have been allotted houses in the Thirumangalam tenements. According to officials, this could be the first time that an MUDP allotment is cancelled and alternate housing is provided, on amicable terms.
“It is not only for the families who originally hold MUDP allotments, the families of their children have also been given allotments for the TNUHDB tenements in Athipattu. Over the years, the families of the original allottees have grown and we wanted to accommodate the extended families too,” said an official.
Between the 1970s and 1980s, 135 families in Neduvankarai Pillayar Koil in Aminjikarai and 297 houses in the adjacent MGR Colony were constructed under the MUDP Scheme. Apart from Chennai, a total of 77,396 houses were funded across the state, including in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchy and Tirunelveli, at a total cost of Rs 23 crore. Of these families, around 60 of them were identified to be within the Cooum’s right of way.