Residents in flood prone areas have started demanding climate resilient planning and better infrastructure project implementation as the civic agencies are preparing for public consultation of the draft of the Third Master Plan after Pongal.
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority in the final stages of the preparation of the draft of the Third Master Plan for 1189 sq km of city and suburbs and is expected to complete the draft after the north east monsoon. The draft of the plan and the shelf of projects to be proposed for resolving civic issues are expected to be released after Pongal.
Federation of Varadharajapuram Welfare Associations president V.Rajasekaran said the civic agencies have failed to construct a flood proof public transit system such as a new railway line or metro rail on the strip of land, 50 metre wide, along the 62 km Outer Ring Road from Vandalur to Minjur during the second master plan period, which started in 2008. “Lakhs of residents in flood prone areas such as Varadharajapuram will get better connectivity during disaster events by construction of a flood-proof, affordable transit system in the strip of land from Vandalur to Minjur. We also need Avadi to get better railway station infrastructure to help residents in our area. This will decongest Central Railway Station. Avadi is close by,” said Mr.Rajasekaran.
Korattur resident Senthil said the last few years in the Second Master Plan period has not witnessed any solution to the basic problem of flooding. “The Third Master Plan draft is being readied now, but the problem of flooding has not changed. In fact it has worsened. We need better planning, projects, and implementation by various agencies,” said Mr.Senthil.
Otteri resident Madan Kumar, who is an advocate campaigning for civic issues in north Chennai, said flooding of houses in their area in north Chennai have occurred during the Second Master Plan period in the past 16 years because of climate change. “Residents need proper public consultation in all the Chennai Corporation zones after the draft of the Third Master Plan is prepared, so that the planning improves and the list of projects focusses on strengthening climate resilence in our area with a large number of poor people. We want all agencies to implement better projects based on the draft of the Third Master Plan. We also need better playgrounds in north Chennai,” said Mr.Madan Kumar.
Velachery resident S.Kumararaja said more than three lakh residents in the flood prone area need metro rail connectivity to other areas of the city. “Velachery bus stand does not have basic infrastructre, no bus bays, toilets, facilities for senior citizens, including benches. The existing bus stand can not accommodate all the buses. The Third Master Plan should focus on planning for climate resilent transportation infrastructure in flood prone areas. We also demanded better planning to conserve Palikaranai marshland during the public consultation for the Second Master Plan in 2008. But the ecosensitive areas in our city have deteriorated, reduced in area and have not been restored properly in the past few years,” said Mr.Kumararaja.
Pointing to pollution caused by sewage in the ecosensitive Pallikaranai marshland, Mr.Kumararaja said the residents need a dedicated sewage pipeline for Velachery and better sewage treatment infrastructure in flood prone areas such as Velachery to improve climate resilience. “Various agencies are responsible for letting sewage in the marshland. This increases the silt, increasing flood risk. Buckingham canal too has reduced to 20 feet in Indira Nagar. The civic agencies themselves have constructed concrete wall, restricting the width. It is more than 100 feet a few km away. We need better planning for climate resilience. We need a solution,” said Mr.Kumararaja.
According to urban planning experts, following Mumbai in 1964, Kolkata in 1966, the master plan for Chennai prepared first in 1971 was the third one in the country as a whole. The master plan for Delhi came only in 1982 with revision as second master plan as the first master plan prepared in 1962 was never implemented.
The First Master Plan for Chennai was foundational for what Chennai is today. Given the hub-and-spoke urban form the metropolis inherited, the first generation of urban planners hit upon the ingenious idea of developing a set of three (semi)ring travel corridors to counterbalance the finger-like radial road network similar to Copenhagen and give direction to uniform spatial and transport development. The inner ring road (Jawaharlal Nehru Salai), the intermediate ring road (the Chennai NH bypass) and the outer ring road stand testimony to the FMP.
The Second Master Plan (SMP) was prepared consolidating on the strength of the FMP and factoring into the social and economic trends obtaining then across the nation. Unlike the FMP wherein the land-use plan was prepared for each and every parcel of land by physical survey by a battery of planning staff, the SMP fully leveraged the use of satellite imagery and aerial photos for land-use planning. Chennai was probably the first city to tap the potential of these tools at that point in time across the nation. Under the stewardship of the then Vice-Chairman the widest public consultation covering the length and breadth of the entire metropolis was accomplished.
All the suggestions and objections collected from the general public in the public consultation process in 2008 were documented and reviewed by various topical committees comprising experts in the respective domain and appropriate recommendations made in the preparation of the SMP. Residents complain that many have not been implemented. Though statutorily the SMP can be reviewed once in five years the SMP had built in a special mechanism to review the strategic elements of the SMP by various thematic committees chaired by VC once in two months so that the SMP doesn’t derail and advance actions for many of the long gestation projects are taken in time.
“The least one can expect from the Third Master Plan is it must essentially address the climate remediation, achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDG) and must be the prime-mover in decarbonisation of urban development and economy. It must make good the non-implementation of many elements of the SMP,” said K.Kumar, former Chief Planner, CMDA and visiting faculty, SAP, Anna University.
“There is a lurking fear and it is real in every sense that the TMP may also go the way of the SMP and never get implemented in right earnest and in full if the indifference and inaction of the government to post a fulltime VC even after a lapse of 13 years goes unabated and unrelenting,” said Mr. Kumar.
Published - October 28, 2024 12:32 am IST
