CHENNAI: Should
Greater Chennai Corporation
direct generous allocations in its
budget for 2017-18 to projects it proposes they fund, residents of outlying areas that the
civic body
added to its
jurisdiction
in 2011 will benefit from new and
upgraded infrastructure
that alleviates transportation and
flood-mitigation concerns.
The corporation finalised a deficit budget sometime mid-March but did not publish it because of the model code of conduct for the RK Nagar bypoll. With the election commission on Sunday revoking the election, the corporation on Thursday put on its website an abridged version of the budget with a `1.64 crore deficit from last year.
As TOI had reported earlier, the budget made no mention of major new projects, policy changes or tax revisions. “The focus is to provide basics: good roads and drain networks to bring the [outlying] areas on a par with the core city,“ a corporation official said.
Storm water drains and roads, particularly in exten ded areas in the north, south and west of the city have received the largest allocations.
The civic body has for the past three years focused on neighbourhoods like Madhavaram, Manali, Alandur and Shollinganallur, many of which now have smooth roads and LED streetlights.
The corporation is continuing in this vein, providing `666 crore for main and interiors roads this fiscal. These roads will get new cement concrete or bitumen tops or the civic body will relay them with these materials.
After the 2015 December floods, the civic body pumped money into storm water drains, especially in severely inundated areas. This year, too, the World Bank and German KfW Development Bank will fund `930 crore for urban water runoff projects.
“We need effective drain networks,“ Perungudi resident R Krishnapriya said.“We hope for some relief in the next monsoon.“
With Cyclone Vardah last December uprooting 1.5 lakh trees across the city, the civic body will use funds from various schemes to increase to `127 crore it allocation to the parks department.
Residents of Kodungaiyur and Perungudi are closer to breathing the less toxic air that the rest of the city does, with the corporation allotting `10 crore for the first phase of work on closing the neighbourhoods' landfills.