Coimbatore's new masterplan faces delays due to the high volume of objections and suggestions received. Local Planning Authority officials expect the final draft to be ready by January 2025 after thorough scrutiny and revisions.
Coimbatore: The city of Coimbatore will have to wait a few more months for its new masterplan to take final shape. According to district authorities, the final draft of the masterplan, which lays the roadmap for Coimbatore's development, is expected to be ready only by January 2025.
Local Planning Authority (LPA) officials reported receiving over 3,000 objections and suggestions for the draft masterplan. A senior LPA official stated, "We are scrutinising each and every petition submitted by stakeholders, including the public. It will take two months to complete the scrutiny. After that, we will incorporate the suggestions and send the revised masterplan to the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, which will go through the document and release the final draft. Altogether, it will take four to five months."
The two-volume, 600-page draft masterplan was released in February this year. It covered various aspects of the city, including proposed population, water requirements, electricity demand-supply gap, housing needs, road infrastructure, and industrial growth. The document also included recommendations to address most of the city's problems and suggestions for the state government to examine certain issues in detail.
The deadline for feedback on the draft plan was May 15. However, two months after the deadline, there is no sign of a final draft.
Officials noted that the number of petitions received was much higher than the feedback received for masterplans of other cities. Interestingly, a large number of petitions came from Sulur and Annur taluks in rural Coimbatore, requesting the reclassification of agricultural lands for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes.
Authorities suspect that housing promoters seeking to convert farmlands into real estate may be behind these petitions. An official stated, "We are scrutinizing the applications to know whether the petitions were submitted by the landowners or real estate promoters." Field inspections are being conducted to verify the authenticity and validity of these requests.
After detailed verification, the modified masterplan will be sent to the office of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning in Chennai. It is expected to take another four to five months for the final masterplan to be released, pushing the completion date to January 2025.
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