The town planning department will have to tackle varied challenges in implementing local area plan (LAP) and town planning scheme (TPS) for which areas have been earmarked by the city corporation.
The civic body has formed a 14-member sub-scheme city-level committee for monitoring progress and formulation of LAP and TPS.
The capital is one among the 25 cities in India which have been chosen for the implementation of LAP and TPS as part of AMRUT project on a pilot basis.
Palayam, Thycaud,Vazhuthacaud and Thampanoor have been chosen for LAP and Mulloor, Venganoor, Kottapuram and Vizhinjam have been chosen for TPS.
In TPS, existing land holdings are merged and redistributed in a planned manner after making deductions for street right-of-way and land for public use as per the note on the formulation of LAP & TPS issued by the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
LAP and TPS are conceived in such a way that landowners derive immense benefits as they receive developed plots within an organized layout, along with all urban services like roads and other urban infrastructure.
The cost for providing urban infrastructure and amenities under such LAPs and TPS can be financed through value capture financing (VCF) tools such as betterment charges and sale of reserved plots.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) has already formulated a value capture policy framework and started its implementation.
Unlike states like Gujarat, finding large parcels of vacant landholdings for planned urban expansion in the city will be the major challenge, the project officials pointed out. “So, the techniques prescribed by the centre for implementing LAP might have to be reworked to suit our circumstances,” an official said.
Source: The Times of India