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.
