Chennai: City-based think tank – Mylapore Institute for Policy Research (MIPR) – with the help of How India Lives has brought out a policy paper that gives a detailed report on managing the seven fold expansion in the Chennai Metropolitan Area.
Background
The government recently proposed to expand the boundaries of Chennai. The plan if executed will make Chennai a mega city, second only to Delhi. In 1975, Chennai expanded from a size of 426 sq km to 1,189 sq km.
But the latest plan embraces a seven fold expansion to 8,878 sq km. So Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, parts of Arakonam, Nemili Taluks in Vellore district will become a part of Chennai.
About 1,709 villages will be added. Such expansion requires a careful plan and management of resources. Hence, MIPR, established with the support of India Cements Ltd joined hands with How India Lives – a start up that specialises in gathering public data, to bring out a report.
The process
How India Lives spoke to several people regarding the expansion. “We covered citizens from the low income to the high income from both the current and new parts of Chennai,” said Rukmini of How India Lives while releasing the policy paper on Thursday.
The team conducted onsite interviews, obtained feedback from stack holders, identified areas of development, analysed the potential impact on delivery of essential services like water, power, roads, drainage and street lighting.
“The data were not gathered from Google. It was entirely done onsite,” said MIPR secretary V Balasubramanian. The policy paper will be handed over to the government authorities soon, he added.
| The team came up with a report that voiced 10 vital suggestions |
| Recommendations * The policy paper recommends that the government reorganise the geographical boundary for efficiency * Strengthen the role of the mayor * Invest in technical staff for town planning * Make citizens manage resources * Promote modular development for better civic infrastructure * Focus on urban slum development * Get government agencies to talk to each other to take issues together * Make city’s data available for the public * Make government rules easy and understandable for residents. * Pooling should be used as a tool to aggregate land |
| Effects of expansion |
| * The boundaries of respective urban local bodies will remain the same * Tax rates or charges levied by local governments will not change because of the expansion plan boundary of Chennai Metropolitan Area * One change under consideration is to make Chennai Metrowater provide water and drainage facilitates to the expanded area |
| Benefits |
| * The entire region will see a uniform development * Population can be better managed * Basic infrastructure can be available throughout the region * Sensitive environment areas can be conserved * Water resources and agricultural areas can be conserved * Steady flow of investments * Job creation by expansion of economic base |