Slum Development Programme By Kurichi Municipality
Kurichi Municipality has drawn up a slum development programme that will be funded partly by the Central and State Governments under the Basic Services for the Urban Poor. The Coimbatore Corporation is already implementing one under this component, as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.Though a municipality located on the southern border of the city, Kurichi is considered an extension of the city. Therefore, it is being covered under the urban agglomeration component of the mission that focuses on developing infrastructure in the peri-urban areas (that border the city). Kurichi Municipal Chairman N. Prabhakaran says that the Rs.6.75-crore first phase of the project will provide houses to 300 families in the slums at Mettur, Ganeshapuram, Kurichi and Pillaiyarpuram. Concrete houses will replace the hutments the people now live in and their colonies will also get basic amenities such as street lights, drainage, roads and drinking water supply.
Each house will cost Rs.1.30 lakh. The Central Government will provide a grant of Rs.65,000 and the State Government Rs.52,000. The beneficiary should contribute Rs.13,000.
“We want to make this project a model among the municipalities. The aim is to create a slum-free Kurichi,” says Mr. Prabhakaran. Besides the basic amenities, each colony will have a park, a community hall and a market shed. The slum development programme will not stop with these colonies. The next phase will identify patta lands to rehabilitate slum dwellers in the other wards of the municipality.
The State has sanctioned Rs.45 lakh for an office building and also tax collection centres. The funds have been sanctioned after the local body had made a representation to Minister for Local Administration M.K. Stalin. A sum of Rs.25 lakh will be spent on modernising a slaughter house. On a representation made by the local body, the Government has allocated Rs.10 lakh for this. The municipality will spend Rs.15 lakh out of the General Fund. Tenders have been invited to implement works for laying roads, providing tar top to some other stretches and constructing drainage at Rs.3.36 crore.
