The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) has set a target to rehabilitate 15 lakh families living in urban slums before 2023.
According to sources, the board has planned to construct 1.57 lakh tenements in the next five years under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the XIII Finance Commission, the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project (ETRP), the Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package (RGRP) and the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY).
Of this, TNSCB has already completed the construction of 23,990 tenements so far. Work on construction of the remaining 34,692 tenements will be completed before March 2015.
Sources also added that the plan was to construct 44,870 tenements under the JNNURM by March 2015, while a total of 5,243 tenements would be added under the XIII Finance commission during the same period.
It is also believed that a total of one lakh tenements will be constructed by 2017 under RAY, making 10 cities free of slums. “The district collectors have been requested to delineate more than 2,500 acres of lands for resettlement,” a TNSCB source said.
Currently, under RAY, the government is planning to build 1,500 tenements worth `116 crore in Athipattu in Chennai in the first phase, besides 305 tenements in Trichy-Karikalan Colony.
Sources said the government would also send project proposals to the XIV Finance Commission for funding assistance during 2015-20 to construct 10,000 tenements for the slum families in the urban areas of Tamil Nadu.
While the estimates for slum population in urban areas in Tamil Nadu varied between 59 lakh and 86 lakh in 2011, housing shortage is estimated to be in the range of 26-28 lakh. TNSCB has not declared any new slums in Chennai for the last 26 years and baseline data of Tamil Nadu on urban poverty and slums is inadequate.