CHENNAI: The Alandur Municipality in Chennai has in many ways become a model for similar administrative units across the country. From its underground drainage project in the past decade to its pioneering drinking water supply project of the 1980s, many schemes implemented in Alandur have caught the attention of officials and stakeholders across the country. The result: officials of the Alandur administration, who implemented such schemes, are hot property as consultants on urban project implementation.The brain behind such useful projects is four-time chairman of Alandur Municipality, RS Bharathi. His full-time agenda now is to share his rich experience in urban governance and help build capacity for officials of local bodies and other stakeholders.After 16 years as Municipal chairman of Alandur, Bharathi demitted his stewardship in 2009 to fight the Lok Sabha polls as a DMK candidate from the South Chennai Parliamentary constituency. Though he lost the polls, he says he has been getting more and more invitations from several State governments to help them with project implementation.“Though I tell them that I am no more the Municipal Chairman of Alandur, they insist on sharing my experience in successfully implementing several challenging municipal projects,” Bharathi said.He has visited Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala during the last year, visiting local bodies and addressing officials on the importance of public participation in implementing urban projects.Bharathi is now set to address officials of the Himachal Pradesh government from July 7 for three days, on issues of peri-urban governance.“I even address the civil services trainees at Mussoorie on municipal administration.I have been to most states, including Madhya Pradesh, to train officials on the successful implementation of water supply and drainage projects.I have also attended international conferences on local governance, including one in Philippines,” he says, happy that his knowledge, innovation and experience are finally receiving their due recognition.During the 1980s, when many areas of Chennai Corporation still lacked piped water and depended on tankers, Bharathi came up with the idea of providing a piped water supply in Alandur municipal areas solely with the public’s participation in 1986.“I went to the people, told them that this is possible if they funded the plan rather than depending upon the government. Each household gave `1,000 and it was the starting point for other projects like the drainage scheme.” Bharthi says the entire 136km stretch of the municipality was linked with piped water supply.Out of the `34 crore spent on the drainage project in the early 2000s, people contributed `14 crore and the rest came as loan from the World Bank. “Alandur is the first municipality outside of Chennai, parts of Kanchi and Chidambaram to have a 100 per cent linked drainage system,” he chuckles.Roads, five over-bridges and new electricity substations to provide uninterrupted electricity were among the other successful projects implemented by Bharathi during his chairmanship.“As a result of better connectivity and facilities, the population in the municipality has jumped manifold — from 50,000 to several lakh now.”
Comments
0 comment