The Hindu 02.01.2010
Govt. clears Corporation proposal to rejuvenate tanks in city
Special Correspondent
| Civic body gets one-time custody of water bodies; will lay walkers’ tracks and create parks |
— File Photo: S. Siva Saravanan 
SET FOR IMPROVEMENT: Valankulam is one of the eight tanks in the city that the Corporation will clean up under a Rs.125-crore project.
COIMBATORE: The State Government has cleared the Coimbatore Corporation’s proposal to take custody of eight tanks in the city for their rejuvenation at Rs. 125 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The water bodies are Big Tank at Ukkadam, Valankulam Tank, Singanallur Tank, Muthanankulam Tank, Krishnampathy Tank, Narasampathy Tank, Selvampathy Tank and Selvachinthamani Tank.
An order issued last month ends a tug-of-war between the Corporation and the Public Works Department over the custody of the tanks. The order authorised the Corporation to carry out the rejuvenation process such as de-silting and strengthening of bunds.
According to the civic body, the PWD had suggested earlier that the Corporation could hand over the funds to it to carry out the works.
The order, however, gave the Corporation sanction for only one-time custody of the tanks.
The custody period would end when the rejuvenation was completed. The tanks would once again be taken control of by the PWD – the custodian of all water bodies in the State.
Meeting
Welcoming the order, Mayor R. Venkatachalam said on Friday that first it would be recorded in the Council, possibly at an urgent meeting to discuss key schemes.
“We will then have a meeting with the officials of the PWD on how to set about the task of rejuvenation the tanks. We have to draw up a list of these in order of priority,” he said.
The Corporation planned to approach the Central Lake Development Authority for guidance on cleaning and maintaining the tanks.
Such a guidance would be necessary as the Corporation wanted to beautify the tank area and create parks, playgrounds and lay walkers’ tracks. Another area of focus was preventing pollution of the tanks.
“The discharge of sewage will stop when the entire city has underground drainage. A scheme for this is being implemented,” the Mayor said.
The Corporation would also look into the need for linking the tanks with canals so that surplus water in one flowed to another.
“The aim is to enable all the tanks to hold water to its capacity,” he said.
After the rejuvenation process was completed, the Corporation would maintain the parks and walkers’ track, lights and other facilities.
The release of water and the maintenance of the water-holding areas of the tanks would be done by the PWD, Mr. Venkatachalam said.
