CHENNAI Corporation seeks expertise of local bodies

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on July 05, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/corporation-seeks-expertise-of-local-bodies/290869.html
CHENNAI: That the limits of the Chennai Corporation were going to expand was clear after the new government gave out a clear signal. Now, the expansion process is gaining momentum as the Chennai Corporation officials are in talks with other bigger city Corporations in the country that were expanded in recent years.  They are seeking their expertise on how to take systematic steps towards integrating neighbouring local bodies for creating a better network of facilities and establish a sound system of governance.

According to sources at the Ripon Building, the Chennai Corporation headquarters — top officials from the Chennai Corporation are now in touch with their counterparts in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Municipal Corporation of Bengaluru) for obtaining extensive department-wise details on the mergers.

After dwindling over the pros and cons for a long time, both Hyderabad and Bangalore municipal Corporations were expanded in 2007 by annexing the nearby smaller local bodies.

In April 2007, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had grown from 175 sq km to 650 sq km by merging the 12 municipalities around it, namely LB Nagar, Malkajgiri, Quthbullapur, Patancheru, Gaddiannaram, Kapra, Kukatpally, Ramachandrapuram, Uppal Kalan, Alwal, Serilingampalli and Rajendranagar from the neighbouring Rangareddy and Medak districts.

In the same year, the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation that was established in 1949 by merging the city area and the cantonment area was further expanded by amalgamating eight adjoining municipalities as well as 110 peripheral villages. By 1995, the municipal area was 226 sq kms and after 2007 expansion, it had become 800 sq kms in extent.

According to experts, only a systematic integration of adjacent areas sharing boundaries with any big municipal corporation would ultimately help the government in planning its infrastructure development better. Besides, it would also help the government to manage them better.

Details from the recently expanded greater corporations would come in handy to the Chennai Corporation, to evolve a better mechanism for easy governance, especially when the proposed expansion would be taking place in a few months time, sources at the Ripon Building told City Express.

For a city like Chennai, expansion has become a buzzword of late, as the urban local body tended to lose its share of Central funds for infrastructure projects purely due to its expanse.

For the record, Chennai Corporation is smallest local body in terms of expanse when compared to the civic bodies governing other metro cities in the country.

It is but understandable that the civic body was seeking expertise from other bigger corporations in the country to emulate a better formula to run the expanded Chennai Corporation.