The Hindu              22.05.2013

Kochi master plan in cold storage

The notification of the master plan for the Kochi
Corporation and 16 other adjoining local bodies has been stalled for
nearly two years.

While the local bodies have accused
the State government of sitting on the draft notification,
Manjalamkuzhi Ali, the Minister for Urban Affairs, has charged the local
bodies of failing to send the vision document to the State government
for approval.

The master plan is the key vision
document for a local body to define its course of development for at
least the coming three decades. The efforts of the Kochi Corporation to
draw up the document began during the term of C.M. Dinesh Mani as the
Mayor of Kochi.

Later, the Town and Country Planning
department took up the initiative. They drew up a document for the 17
local bodies in the region, which came under the Cochin Urban
Agglomeration.

Besides the corporation, the
agglomeration included five municipalities including Tripunithura,
Maradu, Thrikkakara, Eloor and Kalamassery, and 11 panchayats. It also
covered an area of nearly 370 sq km.

According to
Tony Chammany, Kochi Mayor, some of the local bodies in the urban
agglomerate had suggested changes to the land use plans in the draft
document.

The local bodies had raised the issue at a
meeting of the Joint Town Planning Committee, which was chaired by the
Kochi Mayor some time back.

Rejecting the government
stand that the local bodies had not forwarded the document, senior
functionaries of the department and some local body chiefs maintained
that the draft document and the suggestions of the local bodies
concerned were delivered to the government. The documents were
despatched through the office of the Chief Town Planner, they said.

Highlighting
the need for a master plan, urban planning experts pointed out that
fixing the land use patterns in the plan area would go a long way in the
successful implementation of various projects.

The
Cochin urban agglomerate was classified into 12 zones and land use
patterns were suggested for each zone. The development of Sahodaran
Ayyappan and Kaloor-Kathrikadavu roads were possible in the city as the
urban planners had earlier envisaged these projects and land use
patterns in the adjoining areas were fixed for enabling the development
of the roads, they said.

Responding to the issue, Mr.
Ali said the Joint Town Planning Committee should forward the draft
notification including the amendments to the government.

Formalities like publishing the notifications for eliciting the views of the general public had to be followed, he said.