CHENNAI: Minister for Housing and Urban Development, S Muthusamy, on Wednesday announced that a huge complex that would become the capital city’s iconic building, would be constructed in a 25.16-acre land at Pattinapakkam (Foreshore Estate).
“The complex will be built in collaboration with a Singapore-like country. Studies in this regard are going on,” said the minister. He was replying to the discussion on the demands for grants for his department in the State Assembly.
Trees situated in this 25 acres of land would be uprooted and replanted to another place, said Muthusamy. Additionally, 10 saplings per tree will also be planted by the Housing Department.
“For a long time now, the multi-storey LIC building has been portrayed as one of Chennai’s landmarks, even in movies. Now, with the construction of this complex, visitors to the city will definitely not want to miss this. It is very hard to find such a huge extent of land within the city,” he added.
Muthusamy also said that the Greater Chennai Corporation will be expanded by including a few parts of Arakkonam, and the Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts after eliciting views of the public. This is being done considering the expeditious growth in areas lying adjacent to the city and to meet infrastructure requirements.
Special scheme on the cards to lay roads in 143 underdeveloped villages in Chennai
The Housing and Urban Development department has identified as many as 143 villages around Chennai that remain underdeveloped, said the minister. The main reason for the low rate of development there was the lack of roads. A special scheme will be implemented to lay roads to these villages, he said. Meanwhile, the government is also taking steps towards resuming works to establish a bus terminus at Mamallapuram. Another new terminus at Vandalur-Kizhambakkam, being established at a total cost of Rs 393.74 crore, will be opened next year, said Muthusamy.
Stating that providing quality houses to all families in the State by 2030 is the objective of the government, the minister said, “Ensuring quality rather than building many houses will be our motto. The biggest impediment in achieving this goal will be acquisition of land. This will be set right through the land-pooling system, by talking to land owners. About 40 per cent of the lands would be allotted to the owners and houses will be built in the remaining part.”
Departmental inspection is also being carried out towards establishing satellite townships, with all basic amenities and other facilities. The trade centre project at Nandanam will also be revived, he said. Muthusamy further said that multi-storied residential quarters, in many places, were in a dilapidated condition. For instance, there are about 960 such quarters at Singanallur in Coimbatore, and people have been living there in fear.
Similar buildings are also present in Chennai’s Anna Nagar and Besant Nagar, among other places. To avoid a disaster, efforts are on to shift the residents to safer places and then reconstruct the buildings. The reconstruction will be done under the self-financing scheme, said the minister.