The Hindu 08.12.2011
Exclusive city development plan for added Corporation areas
To aid development in areas recently added to the city,
the Coimbatore Corporation has initiated the process of coming out with
an exclusive development plan.
The city development
plan for the 40 wards that constitute the areas will provide a broad
guideline for projects to be taken up there in the near and far future.
As
first step in that direction, the Corporation will place a subject for
approval before the Council at its next meeting for appointing a
consultant to prepare the plan. Sources in the Corporation say that the
subject before the Council will also seek its nod for paying the
consultant.
Once the Council says yes, the
Corporation and the consultant approved will invite suggestions from
stakeholders like various organisations, residents’ associations,
experts, etc.
The plan will talk about the demography
of the area, economic development, socio-economic profile, urban
governance, planning and land use management, infrastructure services,
finances of the Coimbatore Corporation, urban basic services for the
poor, infrastructure development and service provision, initiatives to
mobilise resources, etc.
S. Baskar of the IC Centre
for Governance, an NGO, says that the city development plan will and
should be a guideline for the Corporation to take up development
projects in the area.
“The plan lets the local government – the Corporation – have a say in and guide the growth in the area.
And if it fails to do so, it will lead to property developer-initiated, piecemeal development.”
It
should not be a document prepared for fulfilling a procedure, just as
the Coimbatore Corporation’s city development plan, prepared as part of
JNNURM requirements, has turned out to be.
“The
projects that the Corporation had initiated subsequent to the
preparation of the report was not as per the guidelines of the plan,” he
says and refers to the storm water drain as an example.
Mr.
Baskar also wants the Coimbatore Corporation to involve all
stakeholders, including slum dwellers and street vendors, in the
preparation of the city development plan.
“They are a part of the city and only they can highlight their woes in the best possible manner,” is his justification.
He
also wants the Corporation to revisit the city development plant for
the other areas saying it should be a dynamic document that reflects the
reality of today.