Chennai Metro Rail project to begin shortly

Chennai: “I do not think there are free lunches in urbanisation,” urban local bodies have to reform and people will be willing to pay for better services, said Mr Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Urban Development.

Addressing Infra 2007 – MAP (Marakanam, Arakonam and Pulicat) tomorrow’s Chennai, a one-day seminar on regional development of Chennai’s peripheral areas organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mr Reddy said the working of the urban local bodies need to improve for planned urbanisation.

MAP – an acronym for Marakanam, Arakonam and Pulicat the areas to the south, west and north of Chennai at a distance of about 75-100 km from the city – is a proposal by the CII for the development of a planned urban belt around the city that will act as a ‘counter magnet’ that will ease the pressure on Chennai.

Mr Reddy said that MAP could replicate the success of the National Capital Region where Gurgaon and Noida are important centres of development that ease the pressure on Delhi.

The Centre would soon sanction the Rs 10,000 crore Metro Rail project for Chennai. Work on the project would start next year and it would be working in three years.

Bus transport system

Also, in the pipeline is a bus rapid transport system – a more efficient bus transport system – for Chennai, along the lines of what is being considered for Hyderabad and Bhopal, he said.

The urbanisation process is facing severe ‘capacity constraints’ as there was a shortage of quality firms and contractors to implement the works under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

“Too many works chasing too few firms and contractors” leading to delay in implementation, he said.

The private sector has to involve itself in training programmes for human resource development. In the last year and a half, the Government has sanctioned over Rs 18,000 crore worth of projects with three-fourths going to drinking water, sewerage systems, stormwater drain and solid waste management projects.

Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman CII – Tamil Nadu, said the development of the Marakanam-Arakonam-Pulicat belt would in the long-term result in the development of an urban region that is 20-times greater than Chennai and generate more GDP than the city now. To CII addressing issues relating to urbanisation is a priority and evolving Chennai into a world class city is a focus area.