Business Line 11.09.2009

TN cuts infrastructure, amenities charges for realtors

Our Bureau

Chennai, Sept. 10 The Tamil Nadu Government has brought down the infrastructure and amenities charges levied on real estate developments.

Through an order on Wednesday, the Housing and Urban Development Department in GO. MS. No. 161 has said that infrastructure and amenities charge on commercial multi-storeyed buildings in the Chennai Metropolitan Area and Chingleput region would be Rs 500 a sq m; in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Kurichi Rs 375; and in other areas Rs 250. This is a 50 per cent reduction on the charges levied earlier.

For multi-storeyed residential buildings, the infrastructure and amenities charges have been brought down by 75 per cent to Rs 250 a sq m uniformly across the State.

For buildings other than multi-storeyed buildings, including commercial, group development and special buildings, charges have been fixed at Rs 100 a sq m in Chennai Metropolitan Area and Chingleput region; Rs 75 in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Kurichi; and Rs 50 in other areas.

For institutional buildings not covered under multi-storeyed buildings the infrastructure and amenities charges in Chennai Metropolitan Area and Chingleput region is Rs 100 a sq m; in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Kurichi Rs 75; and in other areas Rs 50.

For industrial buildings other than multi-storeyed buildings the charges in Chennai Metropolitan Area and Chingleput is Rs 150 a sq m; in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Kurichi Rs 112.50 and for other areas Rs 75.

The Hindu 11.09.2009

NIC roped in to help monitor water quality

J.S. Ifthekhar

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has decided to keep a tab on its staff who collect water samples and test its quality. An average of 1,500 samples are collected everyday and the same tested for presence of residual chlorine.

But the authorities are not sure from where exactly these samples are taken and how many tests done everyday.

With a view to fixing responsibility, the sample collectors will now be asked to feed the information and forward it to the head office immediately.

The National Informatics Centre has been roped in to develop a simple, but effective application that can be put in the mobile phones carried by the sample collectors. All that they have to do is to key in the door number, area and residual chlorine in the water sample collected by them and send it across to the Board office.

“This is an easy solution. At the end of the day we will know how many samples are collected and from where,” says Board’s managing director M.T. Krishna Babu.

There are about 30 sample takers who go around the city and randomly collect the water samples. About 300 to 400 points are examined daily by the Board’s Quality Assurance and Testing wing. And on the basis of the monitoring data, managers of different reservoirs are advised to adjust the booster chlorination to ensure the presence of a minimum of 0.2 ppm of chlorine in the tail-end taps.

The NIC has already developed the application and it will be put to use after giving training to the staff. “Next week we will start working on this device,” Mr. Krishna Babu said.

After the Bholakpur incident, people are not ready to accept the Board’s word and are checking the chlorine level in water on their own. Therefore, the Board has decided to improve monitoring of quality of water supplied by it.

With a large number of water-borne diseases, including viral fevers, dengue, chikungunya prevailing in the city, authorities do not want to take any chances with the quality of water.

The NIC application would help keep a close tab on its staff and also generate a data base at the end of the day, it is said.