Chennai: In a move to accommodate more of the homeless poor of Chennai, the Greater Chennai Corporation has accorded administrative sanction to build 12 more special shelters in different parts of the city at a cost of Rs 9.43 crore.
According to a Chennai Corporation official, the central government would assist the civic body by providing funds to build 33 special shelters for the urban homeless.
“The funds will be sanctioned through the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM). The state government had earlier directed us to draft estimations to build the shelters,” the official added.
Following government directions, the Chennai Corporation building department had drafted a cost estimation to build 12 shelters.
The special shelters would come up at Kodungaiyur, New Washermenpet, near Valluvar Kottam, Noor Veerasamy street, TTK road, KB Dasan road, Gurupuram, Saiva Muthaiah street, Begam street, West Mambalam and other places at '9.43 crore. Each special shelter would cost Rs 78.60 lakh to build.
According to a Supreme Court direction, all the city corporations in the country should have one night shelter for homeless to one lakh population.
Chennai Corporation has been running 43 urban homeless shelters in the city, of which 4 are for the mentally ill patients.
“Now, the administrative sanction has been given to the estimates. The tenders for commencing construction work would be floated once the NULM accepts the estimation and releases the funds”, the officials said. The officials also added that the preparing estimation for other 21 special shelters would be taken up soon.
It may be noted that the Chennai Corporation also runs 8 night shelters at government hospitals like Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Stanley Government Hospital.
The civic body is also on the verge of identifying the urban homeless by a
third-party survey and survey is expected to complete before March 31, said an official.
