The Times of India 22.12.2009
Surat eyes BMC model on slum redevpt
Mumbai may be cribbing about its slums and their eyesore quotient but there are municipal corporations in the country that think the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is doing such a good job that they want to come here and study the civic model.
The Surat Municipal Corporation is one such civic agency that plans to visit Mumbai to see for itself how the BMC manages its slums and learn and emulate its slum models and slum redevelopment initiatives. The SMC team is likely to arrive in Mumbai on December 24. Surat, the country's biggest diamond hub, is one of the Indian towns that is grappling with an acute problem of fast-growing urban slums.
The idea is to take a leaf out BMC's methods to deal with the problem of settlements on water pipelines and footpaths and then improve the living conditions inside Surat's urban slums, said officials.
"Both cities can learn from each other; while migrants flock to Mumbai which is the country's financial capital, the bulk of Surat's slums are home to labourers from flourishing diamond and garment industries. Fast growing population has put pressure on Surat Slum Improvement Board to make city free of slums by 2012,'' said a senior BMC official.
The SMC has set itself a target of relocating over 40,000 squatters located in flood-prone areas, on reservation plots and road alignments over the next three years. The task is herculean since the numbers are growing every day and over five lakh urban poor live in Surat's 400 slum settlements.
The SMC officials will also give a presentation on two of their first slum housing projects for the poor, and the grant sanctioned to them under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. "They have already received over Rs 500 crore, which will be used to built 40,000 houses,'' said BMC officials.
