Residents guild formed in 26 TNUHDB tenements in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE:  Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have been formed in 26 Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board (TNUHDB) tenements in Coimbatore division under ‘Our Tenements, Our Responsibility’ scheme to carry out maintenance on their own with financial support from government.

“Of the total cost of maintenance, 50% will be borne by the department and the remaining 50% by the RWA. The government provides subsidy against the amount collected by the RWA once every three months. Keeping this amount, additional infrastructure facilities can be taken up by the associations. So far, 26 RWAs have been formed, including 4 in Ukkadam and 5 in Coimbatore” said a senior official from the department.

Further, he said Rs 1.8 crore has been collected from them so far. “For maintenance work, we have given Rs 12 lakh to the associations. There are talks of creating six new associations in the district. Once the residents association prepares a list of what works need to be done, authorities will check and approve them,” he added.  

As per the guidelines, the associations will be responsible for routine maintenance and minor repairs. The department will be managing the water supply, electricity charges for the common area and lift, and major repairs of tenements. The additional infrastructure will have an equal contribution from both associations and the department.

TNUHDB has constructed and maintains 1.80 lakh tenements across the state. The collection of maintenance charges from households at these tenements is low, as a result of which the tenements are poorly maintained but at the same time, the department incurs huge expenditures on maintenance.
To ease this process, the department announced the scheme ‘Our Tenements, Our Responsibility’ a year ago.