The Tamil Nadu government will constitute a technical committee to study the strength of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenements constructed in Ammankulam in Coimbatore, according to R. Vaithilingam, Minister for Housing and Urban Development.
The government would also initiate action against the officials concerned, he said after visiting on Saturday the site where a few apartments sunk about a year ago.
The Coimbatore Corporation through the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board is constructing 1,608 flats under the Union Government-funded Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission project.
In 2010, apartment ‘2B’ had sunk by 50 cm and ‘4B’ by 25 cm.
He said the previous DMK government went ahead with the construction at the site despite the fact that it was found unfit. He referred to the report the teams from Anna University, Chennai, and Indian Institute of Technology-Madras had given.
The previous AIADMK government, after obtaining the soil test report in 1999, had said the site unfit for construction. The government had also decided to give up the site in 2002.
But after the DMK returned to power in 2006, it chose the very place and went ahead with the construction of 1,608 apartments. And after learning that the two apartments had sunk, the government had failed to initiate action against the officials concerned.
The present government would initiate action, he said and added that based on the report of the yet-to-be constituted committee, the Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, would announce the next course of action.
S.P. Velumani, Minister for Industries, Members of Legislative Assembly T. Malaravan, R. Doraisamy, engineers from the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearnace Board and others accompanied Mr. Vaithilingam.
