Gearing up for its possible inclusion under the phase-II of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Tiruchi Corporation on Thursday set in motion the process of drawing up a city development plan (CDP) to identify requirements of infrastructure and basic amenities in all the 65 wards.
The first stakeholders' workshop, a preliminary consultative meeting in the run up to the drawing up of the CDP, was held on Thursday with Voyants Solutions Private Ltd., the consultant commissioned by the government, providing an overview of the exercise.
The meeting was chaired by Mayor A.Jaya and attended by heads of various government departments, stakeholder agencies, and representatives of industry, trade and service organisations.
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The CDP would focus on the five major areas - economic and urban development, infrastructure development, environmental improvement, urban management, and reforms and urban governance.
Drinking water supply, underground sewerage, and solid waste management would be three priority areas for which the Centre would extend 100 per cent funding for such projects.
Ensuring 24/7 drinking water supply, strengthening of the existing drinking water, and sewer and sold waste management infrastructure by adopting technological tools such as Geographical Information System, online monitoring tools and energy conservation device could be considered.
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“Development of townships, improvements to the old city limits, ring roads, exclusive bus lanes, integrated bus terminals, mass rapid transport systems, technology interventions for toning up civic administration, improvement of civic amenities, and projects of international standards could be suggested and taken up under the JNNURM scheme,” a representative of the consultancy agency said during a presentation at the meeting.
The CDP, which would be finalised in the next two to three months, would also assess the financial resources of the corporation and suggest ways for raising the resources for the projects.
The exercise would also involve secondary and primary data collection of the basic amenities/infrastructure and requirements of the city, a rapid assessment and drawing up of operational strategies and priority action plan, submission of inspection report, and finalisation of the development strategies to be adopted.
Two committees, one for policy making comprising stake holder agencies and NGOs, and the other a technical one, would be formed to assess the projects to be taken up. This apart, ward-level meetings would be held to elicit the views of the city residents on the requirements of the respective areas.
The proposals would be put before the committee before being submitted to the corporation council and the government for approval.
Calling up all government departments and stakeholder agencies to identify their requirements and send in their proposals with estimate investment required, the representative of the consultancy agency said they would hold meetings with the agencies to finalise the proposals.
Departments which had submitted their proposals for the CDP drawn up in 2009 could revise the same taking into account the present requirements. Individuals and service organisations could also send in their requirements or proposals.
The investment proposals identified would cover both remunerative and service projectsAsick Meera, Deputy Mayor, Raja Mohamed, city engineer, R.Chandran and S.Arunachalam, executive engineers, S.Dharmaraj, Airport Director, S.Tamilarasan, superintending engineer, Public Works Department, P.Balasubramanian, executive engineer, PWD, R.Dhandapani, District Tourism Officer, and M.Ambedkar, Divisional Engineer, Highways, attended the meeting.