Second master plan to cover 95% left out of area

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is planning to bring more areas into the master plan which currently caters to only five per cent of the State’s area, according to the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Phanindra Reddy.Delivering a special address to mark the Golden Jubilee year of the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI), Tamil Nadu Regional Chapter, Chennai, Reddy said that the State was planning to go beyond the major cities and was working in a phased manner to cover the entire area.Interestingly, the area covered under the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) is 1.28 lakh square metres, whereas the area covered under the master plan is only 6,950 square metres of the State, a ITPI, Tamil Nadu regional chapter, report said.“As the no plan area is 1.21 lakh square metres, which is 95 per cent of the DTCP area, urban development is taking place in a haphazard manner,” the report added.Reddy said that the State was also planning to take the help of educational institutes for this matter. Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah, who released a souvenir of the ITPI, said that expansion and development should not lead to deforestation and reducing cultivable land area. He also stressed the need for advancements in the study of Town and Country Planning to enhance research and improve strategy to bring about uniform development.D S Meshram, President, ITPI said, “India will overtake the population of China, but has only a fourth of land mass when compared to China and it puts an onerous task on planners to plan development,” he added.