The state government on Tuesday said it aims at a planned urban
growth and plans to operationalise a Land Use Information System, which
would be made available on the Internet.

With the online system, the public can gather details on construction permits for residential sites at the click of a mouse.

Replying
in the Assembly on demand for grants, Housing and Urban development
Minister R Vaithilingam expressed the government’s vision to increase
the role of planning in urban development through the expansion and
creation of new plan areas across the State.

Plan areas are those coming under a master plan, outside the ambit of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).

Currently,
there are vast areas in the state that doesn’t come under plan areas.
Inclusion in planning areas would augment their development.

The
minister announced the expansion of four Composite Planning Areas,
upgradation of two Local Planning Areas into Composite Planning Areas
and the creation of four Single Local Planning Areas.

Composite
Planning Areas in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Vellore and Nagercoil would
see expansion and the Local Planning Areas of Krishnagiri and Ooty would
be elevated to the status of Composite Planning Areas.

The
government would also establish new Single Local Planning Areas in
Peranampattu, Kangeyam, Vellakoil and Gudlaur (Theni District)
municipalities.

Vaithilingam also informed the House that the
government would take up the construction of 5,653 housing units and
20,699 slum tenements through the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) and
the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board respectively.

Also, 3,112 TNHB
quarters set to be rented out to government servants were to be
allotted to local bodies and other government bodies in the face of low
internal demand, he said.

Vaithilingam also announced that his
department would carry out a rain water harvesting audit to review the
implementation of the norms, which had been made mandatory by the
previous AIADMK government.

The Chennai Metropolitan Development
Authority would also look into the feasibility of developing the eastern
stretch along the Outer Ring Road in Chennai, he added.