Tamil Nadu

Sites abuzz with perk-up hopes

TAMBARAM: With housing activity approaching near saturation levels in the city and its immediate fringes, the new home loan package, builders hope, would give a thrust to construction in far-flung areas of the southern suburbs where a slump was witnessed in the past couple of months.

A civil engineer based in East Tambaram said that the builders were eagerly looking forward to such a package to boost the business.

K. Kannan, a builder and former chairman of Confederation of Flat Promoters’ Association of Chennai City, welcomed the announcement stating that it would benefit the middle class. “No doubt it will give a fillip to construction activity, but housing is still beyond the reach of a vast majority of households,” he said, adding that it would have been better if the package’s tenure was more.

When asked about a possible boost to the construction activity in the suburbs following the new package and whether local bodies were prepared to provide the required facilities, officials of the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply said that they did not expect a sudden jump in applications seeking building and plan approvals.

A senior engineer said that plans for providing basic amenities or major projects were prepared by different government agencies for the entire local body and not having in mind a specific area where construction activity would be relatively higher compared to other places. He said that in urban areas like Tambaram and Pallavaram Municipalities, the package may result in new constructions in remote localities so far not adequately connected by roads.

The officials added that major schemes such as water supply improvement or underground drainage were ready for all the wards, including those localities where new construction was expected to commence.

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