The Hindu 04.09.2013
Mayor seeks more funds
Corporation Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa has sought more
funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission
(JNNURM) scheme to take up infrastructure development projects in
Madurai city.
Outlining the various steps taken to
meet the increasing requirements of city’s 15 lakh population, he made a
strong pitch for substantial fund allocation to enable the civic body
to undertake capacity building projects for this expanding city. The
Mayor has made a detailed presentation at a conference on ‘innovation in
urban governance’ organised by the Union Ministry of Urban Development
in New Delhi on August 26. Excerpts of his speech were released to the
media here on Tuesday.
“In the context of population
management, we had to decongest the traffic by constructing over
bridges, develop roads, shifting the vegetable markets/ bus terminus,
truck and minibus terminals on the outskirts of the city. To give shape
to our further plans, we need more funds under the JNNURM second phase,”
Mr.Chellappa said.
Madurai Corporation which has a
population of 15,15, 546 as per 2011 census has been selected as
‘mission city’ for National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) by the Union
Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
Emphasising
that Madurai ahs become an important tourist destination due to its
famous temples and other monuments, the Mayor said that a special scheme
called ‘Alagiya Madurai Maanagar Thittam’ (AMMA scheme) is being
implemented to beautify the city. Mr.Rajan Chellappa has made an appeal
to the JNNURM Mission Director Nisha Singh to allocate more funds.