The Hindu 02.12.2009

Special drive to repair street lights begins

Staff Reporter

SALEM: The special drive organised by the Salem Corporation to attend to faults in street lights in the city got under way here on Tuesday.

The drive was organised following widespread complaints from the public that a number of street lights in the city were not functioning for long.

The civic body and the private firm that had been given the contract for maintenance of street lights, failed to address the problem.

As a result, the civic administration has organised the five-day special drive, which began on Tuesday.

The Corporation has formed four teams comprising engineers and employees of the private firm to carry out inspections in all the wards in the city during night hours.

The teams will identify the street lights that are not functioning and carry out repairs on the spot.

The teams will be headed by the assistant executive engineer of the respective zone.

The Corporation maintains over 26,000 street lights in different parts of the city.

The civic body has appealed to the people to co-operate with the civic administration for the successful conduct of the drive.

People could contact the civic officials on the following phone numbers to report the street light faults:

Corporation main office: 2212844, Sooramangalam zonal office: 2387514, Hasthampatti zonal office: 2314646, Ammapet zonal office: 2263161 and Kondalampatti zonal office: 2461616.

The Hindu 02.12.2009

Corporation plans to improve arterial roads

Staff Reporter

Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Corporation Council on Monday resolved to explore the possibility of improving arterial roads such as Avanashi Road, Tiruchi Road, Mettupalayam Road and Sathyamangalam Road to mark the World Classical Tamil Conference in June 2010.

A resolution to this effect was discussed at the meeting presided by Mayor R. Venkatachalam along with Deputy Mayor N. Karthik and Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra.

It was decided to seek the expression of interest from private players under the Public-Private Partnership basis to avoid financial burden on the civic body.

Water supply

The Council decided to request the State Government to give Rs. 7 crore to replace the existing 6.90-km length of Pilloor water supply mainline that supplies water to the North and East Zones of the Corporation. Frequent leaks in the line caused by pressure had resulted in erratic supply to the residents in these two zones. Hence, it was decided to replace the main pipeline from Sathyamangalam Road via Thaneer pandal road and Avanashi Road with ductile iron pipes.

The Council also approved a resolution for taking up additional works such as roofing, new place for cutting and cleaning the fish, parking places, flooring, electrical works, drinking water facilities and stair case construction at the modern fish market at Ukkadam at a cost of Rs. 75 lakh.

The Corporation passed four resolutions for procurement of baskets for degradable and bio-non degradable wastes for segregation at source for four zones as part of the Solid Waste Management programme at Rs. 1.49 crore. It also resolved to take up renovation works of the flower market at Rs. 98.43 lakh.

The Council resolved to take up the works of removing the 151 street light posts that were 10 years old and replace them with new ones with 250 watts sodium vapour lamps.

The Council also noted that works were being taken up as part of the ongoing works by the National Highways for widening Tiruchi Road into four lane from bypass road to Stock Exchange. The work involved realignment of the centre median.

The Council took up a resolution for renovating the drainage and replace the broken concrete slabs to make pavement available for pedestrians on Oppanakkara Street at Rs. 75 lakh.

It also discussed a resolution for fixing an acceptable nominal rent and to lease the proposed world class swimming pool to be constructed at Rs. 175 lakh on Dr.Nanjappa Road by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu.

It was decided to fix a reasonable rent and to lease the space in VOC Park to the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation for 20 years to run an aquarium.