The Hindu 02.04.2013
Special package for Madurai Corporation, says Minister
An amount of Rs. 133.87 crore would be released during
2013-2014 under the special package of Rs. 250 crore for comprehensive
infrastructure improvement in the limits of Madurai Municipal
Corporation.
Informing this in the Assembly on Monday
while moving the demands for grants of his departments, Municipal
Administration and Water Supply Minister K.P. Munusamy said, this would
be used as contribution of the local body towards the underground
sewerage scheme and stormwater drain works taken up under the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Last year, Rs. 116.13 crore was
given.
Solar panels
Solar
panels will be installed in all offices and buildings of the Coimbatore
Municipal Corporation and multi-storeyed tenements in the city. This
will be done as part of the Solar Cities programme of Union Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The Minister said that a memorandum of
understanding had been executed with the ICLEI (International Council
for Local Environmental Initiatives), South Asia, for the preparation of
a detailed project report. [A senior official handling the subject of
municipal administration said that nod from the Tamil Nadu Energy
Development Agency and the Union Ministry had also obtained for the
master plan.]
The Union Ministry had selected the
Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation as one among 60 cities in the
country for the purpose of declaring as Solar City.
LED streetlights
As
for the implementation of LED (light emitting diode) streetlights in
101 town panchayats in the districts of Erode, Tirupur, Coimbatore and
The Nilgiris, bid document was under preparation. Technical Committee
and Empowered Committee were constituted to give suggestions on the bid
document.
Of about 3.7 lakh streetlights in 529 town
panchayats, 2,731 solar streetlights were functioning and the rest would
be covered gradually.
The project of using
Geographical Information System to carry out property and utility
mapping with linkage to municipal information system was in advanced
stages of implementation in the municipal corporations of Coimbatore,
Madurai and Tiruchi and the municipalities of Gobichettypalayam and
Rajapalayam at a cost of Rs. 3.92 crore. On completion, this would be
extended to other urban local bodies, he said.