Urban News

Source : The Hindu Date : 08.06.2009

Corporation to have model wards in the city

Special Correspondent

— Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

FOR CLEAN CITY: Mayor R. Venkatachalam (second left) and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik (second right) display stickers with guidelines on segregation of waste, launched on World Environment Day in the Coimbatore Corporation on Saturday.

COIMBATORE: Out of the 72 wards in the city, the Coimbatore Corporation will have nine as model wards for segregation of waste, as part of the Rs. 96-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management Programme to be implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said at the launch of a handbill on segregation on Saturday to mark the World Environment Day.

People in these wards will be educated on how to store biodegradable waste and non-biodegradable in separate bins (green for biodegradable and white for non-biodegradable).

The Corporation has brought out a sticker-type handbill containing the types of waste that should be stored in these bins. The handbill has pictorial guidelines; it has images of food waste over a picture of a green bin and batteries, bottles and bulbs over the white bin.

The image of Walt Disney character, Mickey Mouse, stands with a green hat near the green bin and with a white hat near the white bin. People would be asked to stick the handbill on the doors of their kitchen. The handbill was released by Mayor R. Venkatachalam on World Environment Day (Saturday). Deputy Mayor N. Karthik and Corporation officials were present at the launch.

Official sources in the Corporation said the Corporation would form ward committees to take the message of segregation to the people.

Each committee would be headed by the councillor of the respective ward. Sensitisation meetings for the councillors and the public would also be held.

The civic body was of the view that the solid waste management programme would not be successful without segregation of waste at source because different models of disposal would have to be adopted for biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage.

At present, the lack of segregation was one of the major impediments to safe and complete disposal of waste. The Corporation had already provided bins to many areas and the process would continue.

Segregation was the vital foundation to waste management. Only if waste was segregated at the homes, the purpose of door-to-door collection or primary collection would be served. These had a bearing on the rest of the process such as secondary collection (from ramps to the compost yard) and disposal through composting and land filling. Biodegradable waste could be converted into manure through composting and non-biodegradable waste had to be disposed of through land filling.

Source : The Hindu Date : 05.06.2009

Drainage project may take one more year

K.Manikandan

— Photo: K.Manikandan

The site earmarked in Keelkattalai for the main pumping station of the underground drainage project of Pallavaram Municipality.

TAMBARAM: The massive, ambitious underground drainage project of Pallavaram Municipality that has suffered a delay is likely to take another year for completion, considering the status of some of its key installations.

When the preliminary works began in 2006, the cost of the project was estimated to be around Rs.38 crore and scheduled for completion by the middle of 2007. The estimates were revised more than once and the project, being implemented by Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, is now expected to cost Rs.71.5 crore. The estimates were revised due to change in the route of some of the main sewers and including some areas that were left out when the original project report was prepared.

As not even half-the-project work was completed by the middle of 2007, the authorities fixed June 2008 as the completion date. But even now the project completion is a long way to go.

The prime reason for the delay in the project centres on the main pumping station. It was originally planned to construct this facility near the water-spread area of the Keelkattalai Lake but it was dropped after court rulings, recommendations by an expert committee and protests from environmentalists.

Now, the site for the proposed facility has been shifted away from the lake. The site has been fenced, but there is no indication of work commencing on this crucial facility. Construction of this main pumping station and sinking main conveying sewers to a sewage treatment plant in Perungudi form part of the Rs. 12.5-crore Package V (Five) of the project.

With work yet to commence, the project is likely to take about one year for completion. Pallavaram Municipal Chairman E. Karunanidhi said that but for the main pumping station work, the rest of the project was proceeding briskly.

Four other lift stations and sub-pumping stations were fast nearing completion and in most areas, street-lines and main sewers were laid. Road restoration works were being carried out in as many areas as they could. Litigations and land acquisition problems, that were now sorted out, had severely delayed the project.

Mr. Karunanidhi said the tender process for building the main pumping station in Keelkattalai was completed and was hopeful of works commencing at the earliest. Once completed, it would only be a matter of time before the remaining works are finished, which he said would be less than one year.