Announcing several projects of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board in the state, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said most of them would be constructed using pre-fab technology.

Stating that the pre-fab technology is already in use in the cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, Jayalalithaa said this technology reduced the duration of the construction up to 25 per cent and the cost by 10 to 15 per cent.

Parts of the building are manufactured in factories and used in the construction after ‘curing’ through water. Among the projects announced, the number of houses that are to be built in each of the nine districts and the cost involved is as follows: Chennai and its surrounding areas (seven places - 13.80 acres - 844 multi-storey apartments - Rs 371.05 crore), Kancheepuram (two places - 22.70 acres - 1,500 multi-storey apartments- 32 plots would be developed - Rs 303.80 crore), Coimbatore district (two places - 3.90 acre - 344 multi-storey apartments - Rs 50.16 crore), Erode district (two places - 12.15 acres - 468 multi-storey apartments - Rs 59.27 crore, Salem district (36.20 acres - 120 houses - Rs 13.27 crore), Krishnagiri district (10.50 acres - 258 multi-storey apartments - Rs 19.20 crore), Virudhunagar district (three places - 32.50 acres - 722 houses - Rs 73.10 crore), Dindigul district (two places - 1.03 acres - 35 houses - `2.68 crore), Tiruchi district (two places - 3.09 acres - 104 multi-storey apartments, 27 houses - Rs 25.92 crore)

The Chief Minister also said of the 1.29 lakh apartments and houses built by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, most of them were in a dilapidated condition.

The people in these buildings were living in fear. As such, the government has decided to demolish the old buildings and construct new ones.

In the first phase, 3,500 multi-storey apartments in Chennai and other districts that are in a state of ruin would be rebuilt in the current financial year at a cost of Rs 280 crore. The place and the number of apartments to be built are: Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar (480 houses under Ranganathapuram scheme, 120 houses under Parthasarathy Nagar scheme), Perambur constituency (392 houses under Sathyavanimuthu Nagar scheme, Egmore constituency (288 houses under Nehru Park scheme and 32 units under Pillaiyar Koil Street scheme), Chepauk constituency (304 units under Lock Nagar (Navalar Nagar) scheme and 708 houses under Ayodhya Kuppam scheme), Saidapet constituency (136 houses under Kotturpuram scheme) and Mylaopre constituency (42 houses under Andimanya Thottam scheme and 48 units under Pallakkumanyam scheme).

Coimbatore district (246 apartments under Aduthotti scheme), Tiruchi district (587 houses under Tiruchi-Beechankulam scheme and Nagapattinam district (117 apartments).