Publice feedback for 2nd draft master plan extended

Chennai:The period for collecting suggestions from the public on the second draft master plan for the city, brought out by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), will be extended by three months, beyond the July 31 deadline, said Vice-Chairman R. Santhanam on Saturday.This was to collect more public opinion once the Tamil version of the draft plan came out within the next week, he said at a public discussion organised by The Hindu Property Plus.After finishing the consultation process for the draft plan, which was brought out after a gap of 30 years, the CMDA would take 45 days to process the suggestions. The revised draft would be sent for government approval, said Mr. Santhanam, replying to a query on the timeframe needed for the CMDA to implement the proposals in the plan.

After governmental approval, detailed development plans would be brought out within the next five years, he said.Meanwhile, all the suggestions made by the public and civic groups would be taken into consideration before revising the draft. "It will not be an in-house exercise... We will make it as transparent as possible," he added.Earlier, Mr. Santhanam presented the salient features of the draft plan and highlighted certain strategies to keep pace with the rapid urbanisation of Chennai.They included earmarking a few of the city roads exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians; optimum utilisation of the road-rail network to encourage public transport system, allowing multi-storeyed buildings in areas outside Chennai city limits; allowing higher floor space index in MRTS corridors; limiting construction activities in aquifer recharge areas; merging smaller local bodies to create new corporations and developing neighbourhoods on areas along OMR and Grand Western Trunk Road.

Reacting to criticism that the CMDA was giving "too much importance to the IT corridor" in the draft plan, Mr. Santhanam said the plan only intended to provide infrastructure facilities to IT parks.He said there was a lot of "hue and cry about allowing development activities" in the southern coastal aquifer, which supplied only "5 mld (million litres per day) of water out of the 1,535 mld required."

Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram, in his welcome address, said "equity and sustainability are the key to our future welfare" and would help meet the challenges of rapid urbanisation and the stressful demands it made on resources. He reiterated the importance of informed and intellectual discussions while meeting the challenges.In the interaction that followed Mr. Santhanam's presentation, CMDA officials responded to questions from the audience, consisting of builders, architects, promoters, representatives of civil society groups and individuals. They also responded to comments and suggestions from panellists — Chella Prakash of Fairpro, Pramod Balakrishnan, architect; and Durganand Balsavar, architect and urban planner.