Housing and Urban Development Department

Demand No.26

Policy Note for the year 2008-2009

1.1 The Origin and Development of shelters:

Ever since the Stone Age, man has realized the paramount importance of Housing as manifested in his endeavour to use the caves as shelter with progressive improvement to make the available caves quite suitable for his dwelling. As he has the innate inclination to improve his living place and its surroundings, the practice of building houses with the available materials like timber, stone, roof-thatching related items like leaves, reeds, palm-leaves, etc. has been adopted and his ever rising quest for improvement of the dwelling place has helped him to think of the structural aspects, comfort providing features, protection from adverse natural forces, etc.

It is quite appropriate to mention in this context that even the birds have the natural instinct to build nests for themselves. They perhaps, with their limited physical capacity to carry only the twigs and dry straw, arrange them in an orderly pattern to build the nests and from their experience they learn to adjust the orientation and accordingly put up nests to have the best protection from unfavourable factors of nature like wind, rain, etc. As men can learn from the experience of their forefathers to adopt better methods and as the construction skill is handed down from generation to generation, they started wielding the tools for shaping the stone and timber and building homes for themselves with increasing utility value and arranged to provide shelter for their families and relatives so that the dwelling place gives them protection from all the causes of insecurity and especially from the threat that may arise probably from the antisocial and hostile elements in the form of attack, theft, etc. It is quite revealing to learn from the past experience that shelter has been considered so vital for human existence that it has been assigned very high priority in the list of the essential requirements for peaceful life and in the order of importance it is next only to food and clothing.

With the advancement of civilization, people realized that the shelters constructed by the individual families should be organized in a planned manner so that they could settle down in the places which offered them the best comfort to ensure that their physical existence is in no way affected. When large number of families settled down in certain places, each such place has become a human settlement. It may be noted that the human settlements are the places where men and women live with their kith and kin, seeking physical survival, economic welfare, social cohesion and a measure of dignity, prosperity and hope for the future. The smaller human settlement meant for a few families grew into a sizable cluster of families based on common interest and their tendency for cooperative living and each of these clusters became a village with a distinct name. The residential part of the village is called ‘Natham’ in Tamil, which means a location of the residential houses with the availability of drainage system, well formed streets and some public utilities. The very word ‘Natham’ implies that it is a place of better facilities which pave the way for the people to enjoy happy and healthy living with the conditions conducive to intellectual exuberance and social development.

As the process of construction of the shelters improved in terms of the durability, mankind has realized that living in clusters and settling down with provision of common amenities improves the quality of life and enables the individual families to share their labour and resources and enjoy the basic facilities through co-operative efforts. This kind of human settlement is marked by the formation of orderly arrangements of houses with drinking water supply which were managed by the community. When the population of the settlement increases substantially, it becomes a small town with better infrastructure in terms of road network, public places like park, playground, etc.

Over the years, some of these towns became very significant in terms of economic and commercial activities and in terms of political, social and cultural developments and consequently they attracted the people in the vicinity to be associated with them and even to gravitate into them on regular basis. Thus the phenomenon of migration to certain centres gave rise to the emergence of urban centres. The urban centre which was a small town in the initial phase began to grow in size, population density, commercial and economic importance. This process of urbanization became a very important demographic change during the last two centuries all over the World.

1.6 It may be mentioned that in the beginning of the 19^th century only about 5% of the world’s people lived in cities with population over 1,00,000. The demographers have indicated that during the year 2007, the urban population has crossed the 50% mark at the global level. A higher rate of urbanization has taken place in the developing countries where the urban population has registered three-fold increase, compared to the developed countries. This indicates very vividly the rapid pace of urbanization in the recent times.

The impact of urbanization on our country has been quite pronounced. As a matter of fact Calcutta was the only metropolitan city in our country in 1901. The number of metropolitan cities increased to 5 in 1951, 12 in 1981, 23 in 1991 and 35 in 2001. The 35 million-plus cities together had a population of about 108 million at the 2001 census, accounting for about 39 percentage of urban population in the country.

Source: Study report of Association of Urban Management and Development Authorities (AMDA)

On account of Industrial revolution and technological breakthrough during the last two centuries, the employment potential and industrial production have promoted the development of urban centres. This has resulted in the concentration of social, economic and commercial activities in the towns and cities, thereby necessitating the creation of an effective mechanism for managing the urban planning and development with provision of adequate basic amenities. The urban centres must be looked upon as solution and not problems in view of their remarkable contribution to the growth of the economy.

1.9 As there is highly accelerated phase of urbanization, the cities and the towns are exposed to the problems of overcrowding, congestion, slums and inadequate transportation facilities. In order to find solution to the problems of urban areas the Government have initiated a series of measures which would certainly improve the urban profile and regulate urban expansion. There is an urgent need to provide for the installation of urgently needed transportation (especially public transportation), water supply, sewerage networks, electricity and communication systems. In order to cope up with the massive issues, the Government have decided to implement long term plans and short term plans with a clear focus on effective strategies so that the haphazard growth is avoided.

In the newly emerging towns and cities the need for regulating development and construction activities has been keenly felt and the development planning and regulation are effectively carried out under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 with the Directorate of Town and Country Planning and its subordinate offices as the enforcement agency. This framework of development planning promotes conditions conducive to the proper formation of residential and industrial zones. As there is provision for the levy of development charges in the Act, the Directorate which is responsible for monitoring the collection of these charges by the Local Planning Authorities facilitates the utilization of the funds for the purpose of implementing urban projects according to the need based priorities. This Department is an effective instrument for achieving proper development planning and for guiding the local bodies in the matter of urban planning.

1.11 In respect of Chennai which is the fourth largest Metropolis in our country, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority attends to the functions specified under the Act in respect to Chennai Metropolitan Area covering 1189 square Kms including Chennai city, 16 Municipalities, 20 Town Panchayats and 214 Villages in 10 Panchayat Unions.

After the enactment of Town and Country Planning Act of 1971, large scale developments of special nature which require changes. In the policy framework of the development regulation have taken place in order to provide for better regulation of developmental activities and to provide for standard infrastructure, it has been suggested by the urban planners and other experts that we should have a re-look at the existing legal framework and to make modifications and new provisions for promoting the new aspects of development. The Government have examined the new trends and have constituted a Committee headed by Justice Mohan a Retired Supreme Court Judge to suggest necessary modifications to the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act.

As housing and related provision of basic amenities are very essential to improve the quality of life, the Government of Tamil Nadu has been adopting a multi-pronged and well focused approach to enable all the sections of the society to have quality housing in an equitable manner. In order to give a fillip to the availability of house sites and ready-built houses, the Tamil Nadu Housing Board, the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board which have been established in 1961 and 1970 respectively and they have been activated effectively during the last two years.

1.14 The Department of Co-operative Housing promotes cooperative housing societies all over the State with the objective of helping the people to take up housing schemes through their own efforts under the cooperative fold. It has been ensured that the policies and programmes have been carefully chosen and meticulous attention paid to benefit all sections of the society. As a result of the thorough process of need based planning, the needs of the weaker sections have been fully addressed through the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and the Cooperative Societies, which use the State level Tamil Nadu Cooperative Housing Federation for getting loans from the Banks. In order to pave the way for effective participation of the Private sector agencies, Voluntary organizations and Non-Governmental organizations, the Government have adopted the strategy of streamlining the procedure for layout and building plan approval, decentralization of the powers, etc.

The core objectives of the housing policy frame work may be put in a nutshell as follows:

· To create conditions conducive to the provision of quality housing at affordable cost to the citizens, especially to the poor.

· Regulating urban development and encouraging developments in rural areas for a planned, inclusive and balanced growth.

· Promoting standard housing, group housing, neighbourhood schemes with the provision of basic services like water supply, sanitation and access roads.

· Encouraging use of modern technologies in the housing sector to increase efficiency, productivity and quality.

· Encouraging use of appropriate technology for low-dense housing developments at affordable cost in rural areas.

· Promoting co-operative housing as well as housing by private sector with appropriate supporting policies.

· Creating synergy amongst government agencies, co-operative sector, private sector and all stakeholders in housing provision

· Facilitating new investments in housing sector leading to the employment generation.

 

2.1 The objective of Tamil Nadu Housing Board is to cater to the housing needs of the people of all income categories like Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Low Income Group (LIG), Middle Income Group (MIG) and Higher Income Group (HIG). Since inception, Tamil Nadu Housing Board has created 3,95,381 dwelling units and developed plots at a cost of Rs.2,763 crores.

The Government has undertaken special initiatives to reactivate the Housing Board in order to cater to the needs of Economically Weaker Sections, Low Income Group and Middle Income Groups, which are left unattended by the private real estate developers during the recent years. Hence the Government has determined to build 22,000 houses during 2008-09 at an approximate cost of Rs.2000 crores.

The Tamil Nadu Housing Board Act 1961 was amended during the year 2007-08 and a new section 31A was introduced in the Tamil Nadu Housing Board Act to facilitate projects to be taken up through Joint Venture / Public Private Partnership model. This concept is being adopted to avoid locking up of funds and to bring new technologies. It has been proposed to implement 24 projects at an extent of 746 acres during 2008-09. Initially, Joint Venture schemes are proposed at Chennai in K.K Nagar, South Asian Federation (SAF) Games Village, Koyambedu and Villivakkam.

It has been proposed to develop the Cellular Concrete Plant at Ennore through Joint Venture which remains closed for the last 15 years, with modern technology. It has also been proposed to set up a new manufacturing unit to produce pre-fabricated building components at Ennore under Joint Venture. This will reduce the cost of construction and facilitate creation of mass housing habitats in a short span in Tamil Nadu.

2.5 Integrated New Town Ships

Lands have been identified for the formation of integrated town ships and knowledge city with all amenities in the Districts of Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Coimbatore and Madurai with special thrust for Lower and Middle Income Group of people.

The Government is keen to formulate a new Land Policy, revised Pricing Policy and Allotment policy in tune with current market trends in order to meet the growing housing requirements of the poor and middle class people.

A special marketing drive is under consideration to dispose the newly developed and unsold units. Such marketing policy would be on the model of the private developers.

2.8 New Construction Strategies – Harnessing Solar Energy and Green Building Concept

A new initiative is under consideration to tap solar energy to conserve energy. It has been proposed to construct buildings complying with Green Building Concepts. This will result in energy savings upto 30% and water conservation upto 35%.

2.9 Office cum Commercial Complex

Several office and commercial complexes are proposed in five prominent places in Chennai and Madurai to cater to needs of the business.

(a) The Government has taken pathbreaking steps to modernize the Housing Board activities through e-governance, adoption of modern technology, development of human resources and enhancing the services to the customers / clients by computerization.

(b) All the records of Tamil Nadu Housing Board will be digitized in phased manner and paperless environment will be created by building centralized digital archive library.

Effective organizational restructuring will be implemented to have significant impact on implementing new projects. Decentralisation of activities and revival of circle offices at Madurai, Trichy, Vellore and Coimbatore will be done to speed up the proposed projects in the state.

It is proposed to undertake the following items of works under Part II schemes of 2008-09.

a. Comprehensive computerization programme of Tamil Nadu Housing Board at a cost of Rs.55.00 lakhs.

b. Improvement of slum tenements constructed by Tamil Nadu Housing Board after 1971 at Madurai at a cost of Rs.95.23 lakhs

c. Special repair works to Tamil Nadu Government Servants Rental Housing tenements all over Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs.125.00 lakhs

d. Repairs and Renovation works for the slum tenements constructed by Tamil Nadu Housing Board at a cost of Rs.100.00 lakhs.