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Newly built buildings remain unutilised in Erode town

Wednesday, 17 August 2011 10:50 administrator

The Hindu 17.08.2011

Newly built buildings remain unutilised in Erode town

Staff Reporter

Bus stand, maternity centre, shops in Nethaji market remain unused

Lying vacant: The newly built bus stand for mini buses in Erode remain unutilised for long. - PHOTO: M.GOVARTHAN

The Erode Corporation has made huge investments for the construction of a new bus stand for mini buses, a maternity centre and shops in the Nethaji market. But these new buildings remain unutilised though the civic body had finished the construction works several months ago.

The bus stand was established with underground parking facility at a cost of over Rs. 1.5 crore. The civic body invested over Rs. 3 crore for the construction of the maternity centre. A total of 90 shops were constructed at the Nethaji daily market at a cost of Rs. 60 lakh.

The civic body had taken up the construction works for these buildings about two years ago. It had finished works for the bus stand and the shops months ago.

A few works were pending under the maternity centre project.

Delay

“The civic authorities could have opened these buildings for public use. But they are causing unnecessary delay in the opening,” residents said.

Council meet

The Corporation councillors had raised this issue at the council meetings on a number of occasions.

The Collector had also inspected these new buildings and instructed the civic officials to open them for public use. Apart from these three projects, the civic body had also taken up the construction of a large public convenience complex at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore at the bus stand built for mini-buses.

A new office building for the civic body was also coming up at a cost of Rs. 5.5 crore.

The civic administration completed 90 percent of the works for these two projects. “Now the works for these projects progress at a snail's pace and are suffering serious cost and time overruns,” Corporation sources pointed out.

When contacted, officials said that the civic body had taken steps to bring all the new buildings to public use as soon as possible.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 10:55

T. Nagar multilevel parking facility up in the air

Wednesday, 15 June 2011 05:14 administrator

The Hindu 15.06.2011

T. Nagar multilevel parking facility up in the air

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

Project shelved the proposal some months ago, says CMDA official

SOLUTION DELAYED: The T.Nagar bus terminus where a multilevel parking facility was proposed.— Photo: R.Shivaji Rao

: The first joint venture by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) for construction of a multilevel vehicle parking facility in T.Nagar bus terminus is yet to materialise even months after both the agencies agreed on it.

The total area of the terminus is around 1.5 acre and the total area of the multilevel parking facility would be 17,320 sq m. After the MTC agreed last year to provide land for the joint venture with funds from the CMDA, a proposal was made to develop the parking facility without disturbing the bus terminus, said an official of the CMDA.

Even after everything was favourable to the development of the parking facility, the government shelved the proposal six months ago, the official added.

The multilevel parking lot is expected to help visitors to the crowded shopping area, where parking has remained a concern for long. The four floors of the proposed parking space would house 472 cars and have four elevators for lifting the vehicles. A one-way ramp was also proposed for use during mechanical failure of elevators or during power failure.

The decision taken at a meeting organised by the CMDA with the Transport Department last November was considered a first step by the CMDA towards setting up of multilevel vehicle parking facilities in joint venture with various land-owning government departments.

“The parking facility in the area would certainly reduce traffic congestion. But it should be without any additional commercial development of space in the bus stand,” said S. Santhanam, former member-Chief Urban Planner, CMDA.

The CMDA had opted for the model proposed by the report of Mecon Limited, a Union Government enterprise, which was hired to prepare a feasibility report for developing multilevel car parking complexes at six locations a few years ago.

This was proposed to be a revenue-sharing model to mitigate the problems of parking. Everything fell in place after four years but suddenly the project was shelved by the government a few months ago, said an official of CMDA.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 05:20

Metro devours Chennai parks

Monday, 21 March 2011 06:21 administrator

Deccan Chronicle 21.03.2011

Metro devours Chennai parks

Construction work for the Chennai metro rail project is in full swing in the city.

Chennaiites fear that the Metro Rail will eat into or completely destroy the Corporation parks in their localities.

Residents and morning walkers are already upset over the entry ban at a few parks that the Corporation has temporarily handed over to Chennai Metro Rail Ltd to store machines and construction material.

“Recently the Corporation put up notices at a few parks located along the arterial Poonamalee High Road informing morning walkers and visitors to stay away for a few months,” said Mr M. Lokesh, a resident of Anna Nagar who periodically visits Thiru Vi Ka Park in Shenoy Nagar.

“Initially the residents and park users thought that it was a temporary arrangement and after the completion of the massive project, the parks would be restored back to their original size, but now there is news spreading that the parks will lose several grounds of their pristine land to the project,” added Ms Sudha Ramasamy, a resident of Aminjikarai.

When contacted, a highly-placed source at Ripon Building said that the parks had been handed over to the Metro Rail for storing machinery. But, he also admitted that some proposals had been submitted to acquire few grounds of land to establish the ambitious Rs 14,600-crore Metro Rail project that is meant to decongest Chennai.

“As there is no other option, Corporation parks are being considered as options. Some parts of the parks could be handed over to Metro Rail,” he said, adding, “At least two parks including Thiru Vi Ka Park in Shenoy Nagar and Nehru Park near Kilpauk will lose a few grounds of land to pave way for the upcoming Metro Rail project.”

He said the parks would, however, not be acquired in their entirety for the project.

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