Rs4.8 cr for Marina facelift

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The city corporation council on Wednesday gave its nod for regularising shops along the Marina beach and announced Rs4.8 crore for the beautification of the beach. Under the project, the civic body would renovate the stretch from Anna memorial to Foreshore Estate.

There will be new aesthetic lights and high mast lamps to illuminate prominent junctions. After enumerating the number of beneficiaries, new shops with tensile roofing will come up at an estimate of Rs4.12 crore and replace the existing makeshift shops along the identified spots.

Besides, the catamaran parking areas near Foreshore Estate will be beautified and bamboo fencing provided at a cost of Rs7 lakh. The corporation would also establish two watchtowers for the city police to strengthen the surveillance in the beach, corporation sources said.

Earlier, the public works department maintained the Marina beach but it is now in the domain of the city corporation which has bought new beach cleaning machines to sieve the sand and keep pavements clean.

“In the past five years, over Rs30 crore has been spent to spruce up the Chennai coast. During the previous DMK regime, the government and city corporation spent close to Rs25 crore on beach improvement and three stretches of Chennai coast, including Marina beach, Elliot’s beach and Tiruvanmiyur beach, were given a facelift,” a senior corporation official said.

“Though Marina beach continues to be high in the list of corporation schemes, an orchid garden, similar to that maintained in Singapore, and a modern aquarium proposed in Marina during the previous DMK regime have been shelved,” lamented Mr Subash Chandra Bose, DMK floor leader in the city corporation.

Newly annexed wards to get community service centres

Chennai Mayor Saidai Duraisamy in his reply to queries raised by the councillors of the recently merged areas of corporation said steps would be taken to establish community service centres and improve basic amenities in the newly annexed wards.

A total of 68 resolutions were passed at the council meet. Among the resolutions passed were beautification of Marina beach, regularisation of shops at the beach and collection of service tax from public for carrying out fumigation.

During the meeting, a majority of councillors highlighted the lack of community service centres in their wards. The Mayor responded by saying initiatives would be taken to identify land, especially wards in the newly merged areas of the city corporation and set up community centres.

Meanwhile, to a query put forth by a ruling party councillor on reduction of the deposit amount of marriage halls, the Mayor announced that the amount would be brought down from Rs5,000 to Rs500 for the benefit of economically disadvantaged.

Mr Saidai Duraisamy in his reply to another question on receipts for property tax payers said, “The corporation will ensure that the tax payers receive superior quality receipts that do not fade out.”
He further urged the public to make a photocopy of receipts and also print the copy of their receipts from the official website of the Chennai corporation.