The Hindu 20.03.2013
Additional staff to spur work on city’s development plans
BoostThe team of personnel will be responsible for framing the
micro-level plans for suburbs near the Outer Ring Road —Photo: M.
Srinath
The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA)
will recruit at least 54 more technical personnel on contract to
facilitate planned development of suburbs and prepare a list of heritage
buildings.
The preparation of detailed development
plans (DDPs) and notification of heritage buildings has been delayed due
to a severe shortage in manpower. The interviews for recruitment of two
technical officers, 12 grade-I technical assistants, 20 grade-II
technical assistants and 20 support staff were held on Tuesday.
The
technical officers will have masters in town planning and the
supporting staff will have technical qualification in civil engineering.
The selected persons will be part of the master plan unit and would
shoulder the responsibility of framing development plans for suburbs
near the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
The CMDA announced
commencement of the work on preparation of DDPs, which are micro-level
action plans that are in conformity with master plans for Ambattur,
Velachery, Villivakkam, Perumbakkam and Nazrethpet in 2010. The housing
and urban development department also set a deadline of December 31,
2012, for the completion of DDPs for Velachery, Villivakkam and
Ambattur.
However, the work has been delayed because
of inadequate staff and some of the DDPs have even been dropped. A chunk
of the metropolitan area is yet to be covered by DDPs.
The
new team of personnel is expected to give an impetus to the preparation
of the plans pertaining to zoning of land use, infrastructure including
parks and play fields, link roads and commercial and industrial areas
to facilitate balanced development of suburbs, particularly near the
ORR.
The staff will be on contract for three years
with CMDA and are also expected to speed up the notification of heritage
buildings. The CMDA entrusted the task of compiling a list of heritage
buildings to college students a few years ago. The students have been
able to compile a list of only 70 buildings and a large number of
buildings are yet to be identified and notified. More than 500 buildings
are likely to have attributes of heritage buildings in the Chennai
metropolitan area, according to officials.
The ORR will connect Vandalur, on NH45 in the south, with Minjur on the Tiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Panchetti Road north of Chennai.