The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board will be constructing 1,777
tenements at a cost of Rs 134.36 crore in Athipattu in Chennai and
Karikalan Colony in Tiruchy in the initial phase of the Rajiv Awas
Yojana’s Slum Free Cities programme this year.

The tenements are a
part of an ambitious scheme to build one lakh tenements at a cost of Rs
7,500 crore from 2012-13 to 2016-17. Sources told City Express that the
1,777 tenements will be built in two phases in Athipattu. The initial
phase will see 1,056 tenements built at a cost of Rs 84.92 crore and
while 416 tenements will be built at a cost of Rs 32.33 crore in the
second phase. In Tiruchy’s Karikalan Colony, 305 tenements worth Rs
17.21 crore will be built.

The scheme will have 50 per cent
contribution from the Union government, 40 per cent from the State
government and 10 per cent from the beneficiaries.

Currently, a
socio-economic survey of slums in 10 towns, namely Chennai, Madurai,
Tiruchy, Salem, Vellore, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Erode, Tirupur and
Thoothukudi, is in progress and will be completed soon.

Once the
survey is completed a slum-free city action plan for each city will be
prepared and sent to the Union government. After the sanction is
obtained from the Union government, the programme to construct one lakh
tenements in urban areas will commence.

According to State
government estimates about 13.96 lakh families (59 lakh people) are
living in urban slums in Tamil Nadu. A report of the Ministry of Housing
and Urban Poverty Alleviation estimates the slum population in Tamil
Nadu at 86.44 lakh in 2011.

The preparation of a slum-free city
plan will broadly involve slum redevelopment or rehabilitation plans
based on a survey of all notified and non-notified slums, mapping of
slums using state-of-the-art technology, integration of geo-spatial and
socio-economic data and identification of a development model for each
slum, according to the Rajiv Awas Yojana Guidelines for Slum-free City
Planning.

After the AIADMK government came to power, TNSCB has
completed the construction of 22,700 tenements and spent Rs 540 crore on
its capital programmes. Sale deeds have been issued to 4,404 families
and employment oriented training imparted to 8,345 persons.

The
State government is also planning to provide Rs 15 crore from State
grants to improve basic amenities like roads, streetlights and drinking
water facilities for slums this year in various towns of Tamil Nadu to
improve living conditions in urban slums and make them habitable.