The Tamil Nadu government has accorded in-principle approval for taking up urgently required road works for about ₹1,000 crore through pooled financing raised as a loan through banks and financial institutions on behalf of the urban local bodies.
“The loan shall be repaid by the urban local bodies. It is also ordered that individual Detailed Project Reports submitted by the urban local bodies will be considered and approved by the Project Sanctioning Committee for Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF),” a G.O. issued in this regard stated.
The Commissioner of Municipal Administration (CMA) had earlier pointed out that the provision made in the Water Supply and Under Ground Sewerage System Scheme was only to restore the cut portion of the roads and not for replaying the entire stretch. “Due to that, the roads are not restored fully under scheme funds,” it underlined.
In spite of repairing of these roads under various schemes, roads of about 11,000km needed to be repaired in urban local bodies,” stated the CMA who also contended that the urban local bodies were facing severe financial crunch due to cut in grants, withholding of general property tax revision, exemption of lease rent for two months during the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The CMA had requested the State government to accord approval for special roads programme for these urban local bodies through government grants or loans from financial institutions at ₹1,000 crore (in the first phase) which were damaged by Corporations, Municipalities, town panchayats.
