Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday announced allocation of over Rs 2,200 crore for providing drinking water, roads and street lights to Chennai city and the areas annexed to it.
The allocation covers projects that include two desalination plants. One will come up at Nemmeli with a capacity of 150 million litres per day (MLD) and another at Pattipulam near Chennai with a capacity of 200 MLD, which could be increased to 400 MLD in future.
Making a suo motu statement in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said the plant at Nemmeli would cost Rs. 1,000 crore and would come up on the 10.50-acre vacant extent of land near the existing desalination plant.
This plant will take care of the drinking water requirements of the extended areas of South Chennai. A total of 6.46 lakh people in Alandur, Perungudi, Kottivakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Pallikaranai, Madipakkam, Shozhinganallur, Karapakkam, Neelankarai, Injambakkam, Chemmenchery, Uthandi and Okkiyam-Thuraipakkam will benefit from the scheme.
The desalination plant in Pattipulam would be completed in a span of four years.
The Chief Minister also unveiled a Rs 303.78-crore drinking water scheme under the Chennai Metropolitan Development Plan in the current year. This will ensure that water reaches houses directly through taps in 14 areas and benefit 3.47 lakh people. The areas are: Idayanchavadi, Chadayankuppam, Kadapakkam, Manali, Soorapattu, Chinnasekkadu, Mugalivakkam, Perungudi and Palavakkam.
Already, a similar scheme is being implemented in nine areas at a cost of Rs 192.3 crore.
Yet another project is for the local bodies that have been annexed to Chennai City. This Rs. 121 crore sewerage project will benefit 80,000 people in Kathirvedu, Soorapattu, Nolambur and Mugalivakkam.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said modern electric street lights would be erected also in the extended areas of the Chennai City. At total of 1,10,000 lights would be installed at a cost of Rs. 300 crore.
Pointing out that integrated road facilities had been provided to the areas included with the Chennai City, the Chief Minister said in 2013-14 integrated roads would be laid in 900 roads covering 225 km. The project cost is Rs. 290 crore.
The integrated road would include storm water drainage, street lights, footpaths, and ducts for the services sector.
The Chief Minister said that in 2011-12, the government spent Rs. 333.27 crore for laying integrated roads covering 175.36 km over 360 roads. This was followed by a Rs. 253-crore project in 2012-13, which covered 122 km in interior roads.
