DDPsfor five areas to be completed

CHENNAI: The Detailed Development Plans — based on the Second Master Plan land use classification and strategy — for five areas namely Villivakkam, Velachery, Ambattur, Nazarathpet and Perumbakkam, are expected to be completed during the 12th Five Year Plan. Work on detailed development plans, which have not been prepared for the last 20 years, began during the DMK regime for the five areas. However, apart from the one for Villivakkam, the others are still in a nascent stage.Prepared under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, DDPs help in land use planning. Currently, the survey work onVillivakam has been completed. Similarly, there is also a proposal to expand the Chennai Metropolitan area jurisdiction to the Chennai Mega Region. Sources said that the Chennai Metropolitan area was limited to 1,189 square kms, which is the smallest metropolitan area in the country. As such, the CMDA has decided to review the Chennai Metropolitan Planning Area, declared in 1973-74, by taking into account faster developing areas beyond the declared metropolitan areas such as Sriperumbudur, Kelambakkam, Tiruvallur and Maraimalai Nagar. Meanwhile, in a bid to upscale the infrastructure facilities in the village panchayat areas that come under the Second Master Plan, the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited has submitted a proposal by grouping the fast local bodies in the remaining part of the Chennai Metropolitan Area as four clusters to prepare the Comprehensive Infrastructure Development Plan at a cost of ` 75 lakh. Sources said that a comprehensive infrastructure development plan would be prepared in an integrated manner for the provision of infrastructure facilities in the rest of the Chennai Metropolitan Area which would enable the local bodies to prepare and pose projects to access grants and other financial assistance from various sources. The Second Master Plan has estimated that the population of Chennai Metropolitan Area by 2026 will be 126 lakh and the panchayat areas will grow at a faster rate than the municipalities.