In 2018 a few months after Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam in his Budget announced the creation of a mega food processing park in Tindivanam in Villupuram district, officials prepared an estimate for the project. The estimate pegged the cost involved to acquire about 400 acres of land at ₹100 crore, i.e. at an average of ₹25 lakh per acre.
More than a year later, when the file came to Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam for a review, he found that the cost of land acquisition had escalated to about ₹180 crore. Officials briefed him that the presence of housing layouts in about 30 acres of land earmarked for acquisition had led to the steep escalation.
Following this, Mr. Shanmugam undertook a survey of the earmarked land in Tindivanam and concluded that the housing layouts can be excluded from the land to be acquired for setting up the food processing park. “Though we will be acquiring only about 370 acres now – instead of 400 acres – it would serve our purpose. This decision has now saved the government about ₹90 crore,” said an official involved in the project.
Contrary to some of his predecessors, Mr. Shanmugam has undertaken quite a few spot inspections of ongoing or pending projects. He has toured Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, Tiruvallur and Villupuram districts accompanied by senior officials in the past few months.
Reservoir project
During his visit to Thervoy Kandigai in Tiruvallur district, where a project to construct a reservoir is pending for over seven years, he pointed out specific issues to be rectified so that the project comes through. He set February 2020 as the deadline for laying a road in the area and implementing the long pending project, an official said.
At Vathalmalai in Dharmapuri district, he came across many people in the hilly areas who had milch cows given under a government scheme unable to market the milk. Following this, the Chief Secretary initiated steps to make them join a milk society. He also reviewed the basic amenities at Vathalmalai and reviewed the status of the SIPCOT unit at Nallampalli.
Likewise in Cuddalore, he mooted an idea envisaging diverting of water from Coleroon to Wellington reservoir, which is about 40 km away.
“As of now, this is only a proposal which the government is planning to follow after his visit,” an official said.
